Teenage pregnancies has been a major concern especially in Kilifi. This has lead to many young girls dropping out of school and havind their dreams shuttered. The root cause of this menace has been attributed to various factors such as:
- Cultural practices
- Poverty
- Poor parenting
- Inadequate sexual reproductive health education
On cultural practises; we have these funeral discos popularly known as "vugu vugus". These are discos that held late at night to fundraise for funds of funeral expences. Music is played and people engage in dancing and some drinking till the wee hours of the morning. The shocking thing is that you find very young mostly indecently dressed enganging in weird behavior with men who are mostly drunkards and even boys their age. This brings the question do their parents know where they are?
Poverty is another major issue. Most families in the region live below the poverty line, thus can hardly manage to even afford the basic needs. This forces some girls to engage into sexual activities inorder to be able to get the basic things they need. The suprising thing is that in some cases we find that these young girls are actually sent by their parents to engage in this behavior so as the family can get something to put in their mouths. In the event these girls get pregnant, we find that some parents are paid to be silenced by the perpetrators who are mostly mature people. The heartbreaking fact is that during their menstruations young girls trade sex mostly with bodaboda riders inorder to get cash to purchase sanitary towels.😞
The lack of information on childrens rights and sexual reproductive health puts these girls at harms way as we find that most of these girls not only get pregnant but are also infected with HIV among other STIs. If this information was available they would have known about contraception, ways of preventing themselves from getting infected and also be aware of their rights and preventing themselves from being exploited and where to run to in cases of abuse.
The following should be emphasised more to help curb this problem:
- Parents should be held accountable for their children and should be answerable in case the teenager falls pregnant.
- Provision of Sexual Reproductive Health and Children Rights Education in schools
- Sanitary towels should be freely available for our young girls.
- Ban of the funeral Discos.
- Government should strictly deal with offenders that have sexual relations with under age girls
With this we will be able to help our young girls enjoy their teenage years and shape their future by making their dreams valid without forcing them into parenthood at that tender age. "WASICHANA WALINDWE WASOME. "
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