Stakeholders amplify effort to reduce teen pregnancies, sexual abuse

Rising cases of sexual abuse of teenage girls and resultant pregnancies have raised concerns among educationists, community and government officials who are now moving to contain the situation.

This has jolted educationists, religious leaders and gender equity organisations to team up with the government to tackle incidences where young school girls are turning into mothers at early ages.

The joint initiative spearheaded by the Forum for Women Educationists, Kenya (Fawe-K) and MasterCard Foundation known as Imarisha Msichana, targets 20 counties where the menace has been on the rise among school girls in recent years.

In conjunction with the Education Ministry and local administrators, they have initiated clubs dubbed ‘Tuseme’ in both primary and secondary schools to address the issue by involving the learners, their parents and the community.

Speaking to journalists in Thika during a conference to sensitise young men on the issue of teenage pregnancies, a teacher at Rurie Secondary School in Murang’a County Dickson Mugo said at one time in 2020, seven out of the 13 girls who were KCSE candidates failed to sit for the exam as they were pregnant.

However, the tutor said, since the launch of the Tuseme initiative, the cases have dropped to two in 2022, with no single pregnancy reported last year and this year. “With the support of community and religious leaders in which we encourage to come out and speak, we are seeing the number of teenage pregnancies declining gradually,” said Mugo.

Another teacher, Fredrick Mathenge from Kirenga Primary School in Kiambu said through Tuseme clubs, the young girls have been empowered to speak out in case of sexual harassment.

He added that at least three cases of defilement and sexual harassment of school girls have been reported to the police in the area, with one being incest which is pending in court.

Pauline Masese of Fawe-K said the initiative is bearing fruit after the organisation rallied the community, government officials and other players to support it. “Besides religious and community leaders, the program has incorporated men and boys in a bid to achieve its goal of reducing teenage pregnancies. We want them to be champions of rights of the girl-child,” stated Masese.