NAIROBI, Kenya, April 12 – The Ministry of Health says 45,724 cases of teenage pregnancies were recorded bbetween January and February this year.
According to Principal Secretary Susan Mochache, among those registered, 2,196 were as a result of Sexual and Gender Based Violence aged between 12 and 17 years.
Mochache stated that although the numbers were still high, teenage pregnancies have reduced by 26 percent to 317,644 in 2021 from where 427,135 in 2018.
“This encouraging performance reflects an increase of 83% in the number of people living with HIV that are on life-saving antiretroviral treatment, from 600,000 people in2013 to 1.2 million people in 2021,” she said.
She noted that Kilifi, Taita-Taveta and Siaya counties had registered reduced number of teenage pregnancies by more than 50 percent in the same period with poverty and hunger termed as the main attributes.
She further highlighted that for adolescent girls, in 2015, every week, more than 343 girls aged 10-19 were newly infected with HIV.
In 2021 these numbers albeit still high had been reduced by 71% to about 98 cases in a week.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi directed that County Commissioners will now be expected to organize engagements programmes and create a conducive environment where young people thrive without discrimination, stigma and violence.
“Most importantly, we must ensure that perpetrators of teenage pregnancies and Gender-Based Violence face the full force of the law and ensure that any girl who gets pregnant goes back to school,” he said.
Besides the Country committing to end teenage pregnancy by 2030 at the International Conference for Population and Development, Kenya has further committed to address all forms of sexual and gender-based violence and end HIV as a public health threat by 2030.
“This will be achieved through stringent enforcement of laws to protect our children while educating the entire nation that all forms of sexual and gender-based remain unacceptable,” she added.
