Following the news that an overwhelming number of girls had gotten pregnant in the country in the past few months, the only useful thing to do is work on turning the tide. The answer lies in a candid conversation between parents, teachers and teenagers on sex as well as the government providing economic support to needy families.
That children of this generation are more inclined to experimenting with sex than those of previous generation is a foregone conclusion.
Recently, while on an early morning jog to the gym, I came across a bunch of adolescent boys and girls of school going age pouring into the road from a field where they had been working out. Since Covid-19 arrived, many people have opted to jog in the morning to break with the fatiguing sedentary “work from home” lifestyle the pandemic has bestowed on us. A few girls in the group, had their male counterparts wrapping their hands around their waists as they chatted in what would well pass for a romantic picnic.
It reminded me of the Machakos teenage pregnancy headline. I recalled how one girl narrated the ordeal leading to her falling pregnant. She was in a relationship with an age mate who was also still in school. It is worrying that a significant statistic of the pregnancies reported have been out of sexual relationships between children.
While teenage pregnancy isn’t news, it is the recent unusual statistic that is appalling. That Machakos County posted a total of 3,964 teenage pregnancies in the last five months alone (according to the Kenya Health Information System) is mind boggling. That translates to an average 28 girls being put in the family way every day. It is projected that the figures will rise further if schools don’t open soon.
Covid-19 seems to have exacerbated the already bad situation. With the loss of livelihoods especially among the low income households, young girls may opt to engage in some forms of income generating activities to support their families. School closure may have also eliminated their source of food and sanitary towels under the government’s free food and sanitary pads in schools, pushing disadvantaged girls to engage in dangerous transactional sex to support their reproductive needs. The closure may also offer idle time for the young boys and girls, who with minimal supervision from parents and guardians, are likely to engage in risky sexual behaviour. Some of such pregnancies may be as a result of physical and sexual violence that as has been shown by previous experience from Ebola in West Africa.
SCARY PROJECTION
Things could get worse. A further strain on the healthcare system as a result of the pandemic may see the government deprioritise sexual and reproductive health interventions, leading to increased shortage of contraceptives and other critical reproductive materials like sanitary towels. Experts have hinted to a possible 15 million additional unintended pregnancies globally, many of which are likely to occur among teenage girls in Africa, a scary projection.
In view of the developments, the government must strive to uphold the rights of young girls to age appropriate sexuality education and provision of sexual and reproductive health services including contraceptives in line with the Maputo Protocol among other enabling laws that it ratified. The sexuality education must emphasise both abstinence and safe sex practices including sufficient information on contraceptives among the sexually active groups. Topics such as sexual consent and gender based violence and reporting during the pandemic must be enshrined in the teaching protocol under and after Covid-19. The authorities and stakeholders must consider programmes on how parents can safely address topics on sexuality with their children as a way of mitigating the problem. Even with the Ministry of Health’s guidelines on reproductive, maternal, new-born and family planning care during the pandemic, the guidelines seem to lack coherence and isn’t providing for adolescents and young people. There is a need, therefore, to extend sexual and reproductive health services to the adolescents and young people with proper awareness campaigns and clear guidelines on how and where they can access the services. This is also the time for various actors to extend benevolence by donating reproductive health materials and services to the vulnerable young girls.
Over and above everything else, the root cause of our shortcomings is poverty. The government must in its post-Covid-19 recovery plan, seize the moment and institute robust socioeconomic policies that will support vulnerable households. Without this, all the other interventions by the government will just be scratching the surface.
Joseph Odongo is a communications expert and comments on social and political issues.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @makodongo2
