A human rights group in Kitui has raised concern over the secrecy shrouding pregnancies among schoolgirls in the county.
Parents whose daughters become pregnant should be arrested and charged for negligence, the group said.
The Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education on Friday accused parents of a conspiracy of silence with their daughters, which amounts to protecting the perpetrators.
It said those responsible for teenage pregnancies should be exposed to face the law.
“Most of the pregnancies are perpetrated by adults who should be prosecuted for violating rights of children,” Christine Kalikanda said in a statement. Kalikanda is the organisation’s programme officer.
The human rights official spoke in the wake of disclosure by the Kitui county director for education Salesa Adano that 72 schoolgirls writing their KCSE exam were pregnant.
Already, 41 of the KCSE candidates have given birth since the exam began early this month, Adano said.
Last week, Kitui governor Charity Ngilu decried the high number of girls dropping out of school due to pregnancy. Last year, 8,656 adolescent girls got pregnant in Kitui, Ngilu said.
The governor urged parents and youth leaders to act on the worrying trend of child mothers.
“I am unable to come to terms with what is happening with our youth. Is it sickness or what is it? I will sit with religious leaders and others to deliberate on this serious problem,” Ngilu said.
Kalikanda said that in Migwani subcounty, one secondary school had 10 cases of pregnancy among Form One students this year.
“Parents should also be charged for negligence due to the fact that none of the 10 cases was reported to the authorities. It is pathetic and this is the scenario all over. Parents are sleeping on the job,” Kalikanda said.
She called on the society to take a leading role in curbing adolescent pregnancies.
“Teachers have a role to play, parents have their role, the church has its part and the larger community has its bit,” she said.
Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed on Wednesday said the government has developed a digital app that will be used to gather data on pregnancies among schoolgirls.
She spoke in Nanyuki where she hile oversaw the KCSE exam.
Amina said the high number of teenage pregnancies has been an issue of great concern, forcing the ministry to partner with international agencies and civil society groups to curb the crisis.
The new app, the CS said, will be distributed to all schools. It can gather data on the number of pregnancies reported in the past three years. It will send a matrix to school heads to fill in pregnancy data.
Amina has ordered investigations to determine the magnitude of teenage pregnancy in schools.
She said all indications are that the problem is more serious than initially thought.