Nandi County Woman Representative Cynthia Muge has called out deadbeat fathers and mothers who have failed to take responsibility for their children.
She questioned why most children are raised by single parents while both parents were responsible for their birth.
“How comes we have needy children of single parents? That tells you there are parents who are raising children alone. And I want to state this categorically, there is no child that is born by a woman alone,” said Muge.
She added that parents who flee from their responsibilities will be strictly dealt with.
“Every child has a father and a mother. And we will be coming for anyone who is abdicating their responsibilities of taking care of children. It is an issue that we must deal with for us to have a sober society,” Muge added.
Last year, former President Uhuru Kenyatta, called for concerted efforts to save the Kenyan family as a way of saving the children.
Concerned about what he called the evolving face of the Kenyan family, Uhuru said the increase is a threat to our traditional values and the family.
“The evolving face of the Kenyan family is characterised in the 2019 national census where families headed by single parents rose from 25.1 per cent in 2009 to 38.2per cent in 2019,” Uhuru said.
“If unchecked, this trend shall destroy the fundamental character of Kenya and reap untold harm onto our most vulnerable and precious members of society; our Children.”
Data from the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) showed that nearly half (45 per cent) of all children in Kenya do not live with both biological parents.
The data considered only children’s usual living arrangements, and not necessarily the marital status of the parents.
In other words, a woman is a single mother for all practical intents and purposes if her husband works far away in another town and only comes home once a year, for example.
Single parenthood can be a result of divorce, separation, or death of the other parent, or it can be that the parents were never married in the first place.
