Beaches on Lake Victoria should be a no-go zone for teenage girls to avoid early pregnancies.
The high rate of teenage pregnancies in Siaya county in particular is such that 12,900 girls have become mothers since January this year.
Nasa leader Raila Odinga’s wife Ida has called for concerted efforts to educate the youth on the danger of engaging in early sex.
Ida asked parents to ensure that their teenage children - boys and girls - did not engage in sex. She challenged youths to take up the responsibility of taking care of their sisters at all times.
Ida was commenting on a just released report by African Youth and Adolescent Associates which disclosed that the county was among those with highest teenage pregnancies in the country.
The research showed that girls living near the beaches were at the highest risk of getting pregnant at a tender age compared to those resident elsewhere.
The organisation’s patron, Aggrey Owino regretted during a behaviour change campaign at Wich-lum beach in Bondo that beaches in Siaya had become pregnancy traps for the young girls. The organisation’s founder, Catharine Abong’o challenged boys to shield their sisters from beach sex pests.
Ida said she would be in the forefront of any campaign that would stop the ruin of young girls’ future.
She asked leaders not to watch as schoolgirls’ lives were destroyed by individuals on Lake Victoria beaches.
“I want to ask the community and especially those along the beaches to change their behaviour to end the vice,” Mama Ida said.
She also called on boys to protect girls from sex predators. She at the same time asked the youths to avoid drugs and reminded them that alcohol was traditionally consumed by old people.
The rate of teenage pregnancies stands at 40 per cent in Siaya, according to Health executive Dorothy Owino.
Owino, who also attended the change behaviour campaign, said that a taskforce had been set up to find a lasting solution to the worrying situation.
The sorry state of Kenya’s teenage pregnancies was exposed during this year’s KCPE tests when tens of candidates wrote their papers in maternity wards.