Official: Underage pregnancy cases must go to courts

Cases of schoolgirl pregnancies cannot be resolved through alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, Nyahururu Deputy County Commissioner Bernard Odino has warned.

Adults implicated in getting underage girls pregnant must be prosecuted, as well as parents found to settle such cases out of court.

Speaking at the Nyahururu stadium in Laikipia County on Jamhuri Day, Odino expressed concerns about the high number of pregnant girls who sat this year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education at a special exam centre set up at Nyahururu Referral Hospital.

Odino encouraged the victims and their parents to record statements at the nearest police stations so that action could be taken against the men involved.

Meanwhile, he said Nyahururu sub-county had recorded a rise in cases of stock theft and drug and substance abuse.

He attributed this to a lack of active Nyumba Kumi programmes and directed chiefs and their assistants to activate such programmes in their locations.

A representative of the business community, Francis Njega, called on leaders to mind their language so as to avoid creating a hostile political climate that could hurt businesses.