TESO, Kenya Dec 4 – Police in Teso North Sub County in Busia County have cautioned sexual predators planning to take advantage of teenage girls over the December holidays.
Malaba Officer Commanding Station George Ouka issued the warning at Kocholya Free Pentecostal Fellowship in Kenya (FPFK) during a sensitization meeting against gender-based violence.
He said security agencies will not hesitate to arrest culprits engaging teenagers in sexual activities and bring them to book.
Ouka made an assurance that all defilement suspects will be prosecuted contrary to the notion that the majority of the perpetrators buy their freedom and get released from police cells without facing the law.
He attributed the rampant cases of moral decadence among the teenagers and the youths in the sub-county to funeral dances popularly known as disco matanga.
“My appeal goes to the police and local administrators. Let us talk to our youth and discourage disco matangas within our area because these dances bring about defilement. If we join hands and go out to talk to our people these cases will reduce.
“To the boda-boda fraternity, I want to appeal to you that when you see this happening within your locality, feel free to let us know such that we can team up together and discourage it.
“Changing the attitude of our people towards immorality is something that should be of great concern to all of us.” He said noting that it remains everyone’s responsibility to protect adolescents from engaging in sex.
According to Ouka the most affected places are along the busy Malaba-Bungoma highway where young girls engage in transactional sex with truck drivers oblivious of the dangers they expose themselves to.
FPFK project coordinator Belinda Undisa said findings of a project they undertook to educate residents of Teso North, especially those living along the Malaba-Bungoma highway on the disadvantages of gender-based violence revealed that the cases are still high.
She added that the main aim of the project was to curb the involvement of young girls in transactional sex which came during the Covid-19 period in 2020.
“During this time, many people lost jobs and there were so many effects of Covid-19 to the economy.
In Malaba for instance, there were many cases of sexual violence and we were targeting the highway because there were many cases of child transactional sex where young girls engaged in early sex to get money.
“Cases of sexual violence are still high although the community has been enlightened on what they are expected to do and currently there is that collaboration between the community, the administration, and the police”. She said noting that the stakeholders who are now enlightened are closely working together hence the cases are bound to drastically drop.
According to data from the Teso North Directorate of Children Services department a total of 2,571 teenagers aged between 15 and 19 used family planning products in the last three years an indicator that they are sexually active.
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