• Because of the cultural set up, parents hardly discuss sex with their children.
• It's feared early pregnancies could be the reason cases of post-abortion care are rising.
The rate at which teenage girls in Uasin Gishu county are getting pregnant is worrying health officials.
The pregnancy rate currently stands at 22 per cent for girls aged between 15 to 19, translating to one in every five girls within the age bracket.
A reproductive health officer at the county department of health Caroline Chemoiywo said there was a need to scale up reproductive health services to curb the rising teenage pregnancies.
“We are almost the second county in the country with the highest rate of teenage pregnancies, which is worrying”, Chemoiywo said.
She spoke on Tuesday during an inter-ministerial policy meeting on population and the Big Four agenda organised by the National Council for Population and Development.
She said the county has started youth friendly centres in health facilities to empower the youth with knowledge on reproduction and the dangers associated with premarital sex.
Chemoiywo said men should be involved in reproductive health as they are major decision makers in the family.
“Because of the cultural set up, parents hardly discuss sex with their children. Matters sexuality are swept under the carpet, leaving the children to discover on their own and in the process get pregnant”, she said.
Most of the teens getting pregnant are in school.
"For a few years now, we have had a worrying number of girls sitting their national examinations in hospital after conceiving. One of the reasons for the increased number of girls getting pregnant we realised is that parental engagement is lacking," said Simon Kemei, an official from the Ministry of Education.
He said many parents have abdicated their responsibilities of bringing up their children. During the holidays, they send children away to stay with relatives even for a whole month, creating opportunities for the girls to be preyed upon.
According to the 2014 Demographic and Health Survey, 5.9 per cent of girls in Uasin Gishu between the ages of 15-19 get pregnant with their first child while 16.4 per cent have given birth compared to 3.4 and 14.7 per cent respectively at national level.
There are fears that the early pregnancies could be the reason cases of post-abortion care in the county increased between July last year and May this year.
Records available indicate that 28 girls aged between 10 and 19 years sought post-abortion care in public health facilities in the county between July and September last year.
Between January and May this year, eight girls have sought the services.