County-specific interventions will reduce teen pregnancies, stakeholders say

To reduce teenage pregnancies across the country, county-specific interventions would have to be deployed.

This is according to Kawira Gikambi, from the department of Policy, Partnerships and East African Community Affairs at the Ministry of Education.

Gikambi was one of the Education stakeholders present to give recommendations and validation to the findings of a study done by the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE-Kenya) on teenage pregnancies and school dropouts.

She said that the factors leading to early unplanned pregnancies vary from county to county thus interventions tailored to them needed to be employed.

FAWE did a baseline survey in the counties of Nairobi, Narok, Machakos, Kajiado and Nakuru to find out the current status of teenage pregnancies, school dropouts and the impact the pandemic had.

While Narok and Kajiado have cultural practices such as early marriages that lead to consequences such as teenage pregnancies, Machakos, Nairobi and Nakuru may have other factors.

"The National Education Sector Strategic Plan (NESSP) outlines factors such as gender-based violence, defilement and substance abuse as some of the reasons for teenage pregnancies on a National level, so a county-level analysis also needs to be looked at," she said.

“We can then compare the different factors with those of the National factors found in our, that way, we can find interventions that are specifically targeted to those counties,” she added.

During the onset of the pandemic, teenage pregnancies were reported in large numbers across the country, resulting in many of them not being able to return once schools were reopened later in January 2021.

According to FAWE’s findings, girls’ return to school was hindered by challenges schools face in implementing the return to school policy as well as schools’ and communities’ refusal to allow girls back in school.

This is despite the National Education Sector Strategic Plan (NESSP) 2018-2022 providing provisions for girls who fall pregnant to go back to school.

“The community refuses to let go of stigma against young mothers, making it difficult for them to return to school because they become the source of discrimination from teachers and fellow students,” FAWE reported.

“Additionally, schools are finding it difficult to let young mothers go back to school because they would also need to support the girls’ children through daycares and other childcare support such as nursing stations at school.” 

The resources for such infrastructure and support are not available so some girls opt to just stay home.

Various heads of the Education sector from the five counties in FAWE's study gave their insights into the findings.

Stephen Jalenga, the National Gender Officer at the Ministry of Education, said that the study was very timely.

"The study could not have come at a better time and once our recommendations are added to it and it is completed, it will help in influencing policies and budgeting to help reduce teenage pregnancies in Kenya," he said.

Kevin Omwansa, head of Knowledge Management at FAWE, said that the number of teenage pregnancies was baffling.

“In April 2021, the Government launched a report together with the Teachers’ Service Commission finding that over 400,000 students had not returned to school after reopening from lockdown,” he said.

Out of that number, Omwansa said, over 250,000 were girls and over 150,000 were pregnant.

He called for the provision of sexual reproductive health services that were youth-friendly to help address these high numbers.

He said that once Education stakeholders, Community Based Organisations, Health practitioners and the Community fail in their mandate, more and more young people would succumb and miss out on school.