When 17-year-old Mary (not her real name) from Kandara, Murang’a, found out she was pregnant, her world came crashing down.
Her mother had remarried and her stepfather did not want to take responsibility for her and occasionally mistreated her.
Mary ran away from home to live with her boyfriend, who threw her out when she told him she was pregnant.
Desperate, she started living in the streets of Githurai in Nairobi where she scavenged for food and slept in dark corners. Most of the days she slept hungry, which prompted her to turn to drugs.
However, her salvation came when a woman took pity on her after noticing her bulging belly and offered to help her. She was five months pregnant.
The well-wisher took her to Muthithi Rescue Kiota home in Kigumo constituency, where she was cared for until she gave birth.
She was later referred to another home that handles survivors of gender-based violence and the baby was given up for adoption.
Without support, Mary had no means of bringing up the child, having dropped out of school in Form 2.
She agreed to have the baby adopted by another family. This enabled her to resume her education.
Kiota home is tucked away in the quiet Njora village. The home looks like a homestead and has a high fence that limits interaction between its occupants and the villagers.
Inside, four girls in various stages of pregnancy can be seen jovially going about their daily chores, some preparing lunch and the others cleaning.
Bunk beds have been placed in two bedrooms for the girls. A third bedroom is occupied by house mother Tabitha Wanjiru and her deputy Lucy Wambui.
The home was started by Dr Jean Kagia, a prominent gynaecologist in Nairobi and provides a safe haven for pregnant girls, especially those facing hostility in their homes, to give birth and resume their studies.
One of the girls currently at the home is 17 years. She was brought up in a children’s home after she and her two siblings were abandoned by their parents.
She got into a relationship with a boy from the children’s home.
When she got pregnant, the children’s home handed her over to Kiota home to help her through the pregnancy and return once she delivers.
The girl’s wish however is to bring up her child herself. To her, adoption is not an option.
As she speaks to the Star, the teenager is emotional and almost breaks into tears as she narrates her experience.
The house mother cautions against enquiring about her family background, saying she cries uncontrollably every time she talks about it.
The soft-spoken teenager says she plans to go back to school and wants to become a fashion designer. Her dream was inspired by Hollywood actress Lupita Nyong’o.
The house mother, Wanjiru or aunt Tabby as the girls fondly call her, says the girl needs time to work on her emotions and is undergoing counselling.
Wanjiru, a single mother of one, says her daughter is in university, which allows her to fully dedicate her time to the teenagers.
The girls start their daily chores at 6am under supervision.
Wanjiru says this helps rehabilitate them and gives them a sense of responsibility.
“Some of the girls we handle come from dysfunctional homes and do not know how to be responsible. However, we work on them and by the time they deliver, most are able to take care of themselves,” she says.
The house mother says the home is experiencing a low season, with only four teenagers currently.
She says sometimes it gets overwhelming and girls have to wait in line to be admitted.
The situation was worst during the Covid-19 pandemic, when there was a surge in teen pregnancies and gender-based violence.
In the home, girls are provided with a proper diet, psychological help, and are taken for antenatal care in local health facilities.
The home caters for their deliveries and after a few days of recuperation, they are either taken back by their families or handed over to other homes.
“We keep their guardians well informed on their progress because we do not allow the girls to have mobile phones at the home,” Wanjiru says.
Most victims of incest and those facing hostile relatives are advised to give up their babies for adoption, a process that is done legally with the help of the police and the Children’s department.
Wanjiru says the rate of defilement in the county is high but most families cover up the issue to save face.
She says the majority of teen pregnancies are a result of incest but most families resolve to handle the cases out of court.
One of the most bizarre cases she encountered was that of a 13-year-old girl who was defiled by a 47-year-old man.
The girl was allegedly taken to a sorcerer in Mombasa where she underwent rituals. Afterwards, the girl ran away from her parents' home and started cohabiting with the man.
The man would use the teen to extort money from her parents, threatening to harm her. By the time she was rescued, he had extorted about Sh23,000 from them.
“He would tell the girl to call her parents and after they answered, he would grab the phone and make the demands,” Wanjiru says.
The girl was on her way to Tanzania with the man when the parents alerted the police. The suspect was arrested while the girl was taken to the home as she was three months pregnant.
After undergoing counselling, she opened up about her ordeal and vowed to focus on getting her life back on track.
In another case, an 11-year-old Std 5 pupil from Kigumo was molested by her father when her mother was forced to stay in hospital with a sick sibling.
Months later, schoolmates started making fun of her protruding belly. The girl did not know that she was pregnant and thought she was just bloated.
A teacher summoned her and took her to a health facility where it was discovered that she was five months pregnant.
The girl revealed that it was her father who was responsible.
The man was arrested and eventually jailed for 75 years, while the girl safely delivered at the home and resumed her studies.
Wanjiru says the only way cases of teen pregnancies can be reduced is if community members work together to combat them.
“Parents should be keen enough to notice any changes in their children’s behaviour and have candid conversations with them," she says.
"Stern action should also be taken against anyone who breaches children’s rights, including the molesters and security officers who enable them.”
Data from the Ministry of Health says 32,000 adolescents aged 10 to 17 attended antenatal care in the county over the last six years, representing 25 per cent of all mothers who went for pre-birth care.
In July, Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi visited Murang'a to launch the ‘Triple Threat’ campaign.
The campaign seeks to fight teen pregnancies, gender-based violence and new HIV infections.
Mwangangi said as a doctor, she has attended to teenagers who have struggled to deliver because their bodies are not mature enough.
“Some end up with tears and fistulas at such a young age and have to undergo corrective surgery that takes up to six hours," she says.
"You take such a young girl out of school and put her through such an experience and then leave her with a child, yet she is not an adult herself.”
Mwangangi also expressed concerns that 17 out of 100 new HIV infections are among adolescents who require Sh19,228 each for first-line treatment annually, while adult patients need Sh22,700 annually.
Sexual and gender-based violence among adolescents increased by 85 per cent from 2016 to 2021 in the country.
In Murang’a, HIV infections among adolescents fell from 73 per cent to 37 per cent in six years. The county lost 29 adolescents to HIV-related deaths last year.
Former Health executive Joseph Mbai, who started the Okoa Teenagers Initiative in 2018, said with the partnership of national government officers, 117 defilers have been charged in court out of whom 61 have been convicted.
Mbai has been working with health officers to follow up on teen mothers who deliver in public health facilities and ensure the men responsible are punished.
Murang'a county commissioner Karuku Ngumo said in an effort to eradicate gender-based violence, 19 out of 37 police stations have established GBV desks where victims get special attention.
He says sexual offences have gone down, with only 127 cases reported this year compared to 218 cases last year and 229 in 2020.
Ngumo attributed the decline to efforts made by national government administration officers and NGOs to create awareness.
“NGAO officers make a point of talking about the triple threat issues every time they have an engagement with their people,” he said.
A number of security officers have also been punished for engaging in Kangaroo courts to deal with defilement.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
