Adolescent teenagers account for 18 per cent of young mothers in the country, with most counties recording an upsetting high rate fueled by various factors among them lack of education on sexual and reproductive health.
Many girls continue to drop out of school due to pregnancy, health related challenges including mortality and morbidity due to birth related complications and unsafe abortion and are in some occasions forced into early marriages.
The government revealed that the country ranks third worldwide in teenage pregnancies with rights organisations and gender activists calling for an immediate and strong strategy to curb this menace.
According to a recent data released by the Ministry of Health, one in five adolescents aged 15–19 are already mothers or pregnant with their first child.
Statistics from the Ministry of Health reveal that between January and May this year, health facilities recorded 109,110 antenatal care visits by adolescents.
According to health expertise, most teenage pregnancies point to rampant unprotected sex among the youth.
Last year, approximately 21 per cent totaling 317,644 of all pregnancies in the country were among adolescents aged 10–19 with some of them being victims of different forms of violence including sexual and Gender-Based Violence (GBV).
The 2020 Covid-19 pandemic that led to the closure of schools in mid-March to curb the spread of the coronavirus has exposed seven million girls to gender-based violence, sexual exploitation such as defilement and rape and unwanted early pregnancy. Most were violated by their relatives and people they knew.
Counties like Nairobi, Kajiado, Homa Bay, Meru, Kericho, Narok, Kisii, Mandera and Bomet account for the most reported cases of teenage pregnancies in Kenya.
Approximately seven million girls were exposed to sexual exploitation such as defilement and rape which led to unwanted early pregnancies.
During this years’ 2022 national examinations, a total of 124 expectant girls from Kajiado county were registered to sit for their exams.
Ten of the heavily pregnant girls sat for their Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) exams, while 28 and 86 others sat for their Kenya Certificate for Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate for Secondary Education (KCSE) respectively.
Kajiado county is among the profiled counties grappling with Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and the early marriages menace.
Immediate former President Uhuru Kenyatta in July 2020 directed the National Crime Research Centre (NCRC) to probe the high cases of teenage pregnancies and GBV as the country continued to battle with the pandemic.
The NCRC, in a report released last year titled ‘Protecting the Family in the Time of Covid-19 Pandemic: Addressing the Escalating Cases of Gender-based Violence, Girl Child Disempowerment and Violation of Children Rights in Kenya revealed girls suffered the most from defilement, attempted defilement, child marriage, teenage pregnancy and FGM.
The report also observed an increase in girls engaging in abortions, drug abuse and being neglected and sexually violated by family members and relatives, and confined unlawfully.
Additionally, a United Nations Population Fund report estimates that the country had 378,397 adolescent and teenage pregnancies among girls 10-19 in July 2016-June 2017 — 28,932 girls of ages 10-14 and 349,465 aged 15-19.
Pregnancies among underage girls in Narok county stands at 40 percent, which is way above the national average of 18 percent.
The problem in the county is mostly attributed to high levels of poverty and traditional beliefs and practices.
In 2019 and 2021, Nyeri county recorded a 59 percent increase in the number of teenage girls seeking ante-natal care.
Between January and May this year, around 720 teenage pregnancies have been reported in the county.
In Meru county, around 15,000 girls became pregnant in the first five months of the year.
Related to teenage pregnancies, new data released by the government also indicate that HIV/AIDS infection among adolescents is very high.
According to statistics from MoH, in the previous year, an average of 98 new HIV cases were recorded every week among adolescents aged 10-19.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the causes of early pregnancies are attributed to low economic status, physical and sexual violence, less education related to sexual and reproductive health.