Oral East Africa>Kenya needs bold solutions to tackle teenage pregnancies At the hut of the story

Written by Mercy Dalizu

The prevalence of teenage pregnancy especially among poor girls and its impact on the lives of thousands of women needs urgent well thought out interventions.

Teenage pregnancy in Kenya is still on the rise especially among poor girls even as duty bearers continue to bury their heads in the sand ignoring the reality that 15 percent of women age 15-19 have ever been pregnant, 12 percent have had a live birth, 1 percent have had a pregnancy loss, and 3 percent are currently pregnant according to the Kenya Demographic Health Survey 2022.

Efforts to address teenage pregnancies and other sexual and reproductive health matters are resisted by parents, religious leaders, political leaders and stakeholders despite the mounting evidence that young people are initiating sex earlier and earlier.

The percentage of women 15-19 who have ever been pregnant increases with age from 3 percent among those age 15 to 31 percent among those age 19.

In Kenya teenage pregnancy continues to be a rising problem all over the country. Stakeholders continue to debate on this matter and blame each other.

The question is how do we liberate our girls from this pandemic called teenage pregnancy?

Girls who get minimal education are more likely to become mothers at younger ages due to lack of information as the problem is elevated especially for poor people with low levels of education. KNBS estimates that about 4 in 10 women aged 15-19 who have no education have ever been pregnant, as compared to only 5 percent of women who have more than secondary education.

Studies of adolescents and sexuality in Kenya are very limited which leads to the high rate of pregnancy in the country. Teenage pregnancy is most likely to occur among communities with vulnerable people.

This is reflective of teenage women in the lowest wealth quintile as they are more likely to have ever been pregnant than women in the highest wealth quintile. The percentage of women who have ever been pregnant decreases from 21 percent among those in the lowest wealth quantile to 8 percent among those in the highest wealth quantile.

Teenage pregnancies are a major challenge for socioeconomic development because they deprive young girls of the opportunity to further their education and attain their career goals.

It also exposes them and their children to major risks. According to the World Health Organization pregnancy and childhood complications are the leading cause of death among young girls in the communities.

Teenage pregnancy in Kenya needs to remain at the top of the government’s political agenda. When teenage pregnancy enters public discourse, often triggered by certain events,it often gets buried and we continue to focus on other topics.

Proven interventions like comprehensive sex education(CSE) are also often dismissed with the view that they would encourage young people to indulge in sex.

To address this challenge decisively, evidence must play a central role in determining interventions so that the problem can be extinguished from the root cause.

The writer is an Advocacy & Communications Volunteer at Kisumu Medical and Education Trust (KMET)