If you thought that the teenage pregnancy menace in Kenya was going to end any time soon, you need to take your favorite beverage, take a sip to normalize your blood pressure, as I give you shocking details of the current state of affairs pertaining the matter.
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| Teenage young mothers, one of them with a baby. Photo courtesy UN |
A recent study by Performance and Monitoring for Action (PMA) project funded by Jhpiego and Bill and Melida gate's foundation in Kitui has revealed that 55.6% of teenage girls in Kitui were very willing to have sex during their first coitus encounter. Also, only 43% of girls between the age of 18-25 in Kitui who can be termed as virgins, meaning they have never had canal knowledge since birth.
It was also revealed that the highest number 67.9% of girls had their first sex out of curiosity, this is even as teenage pregnancy statistics in Kitui county stood at 10%.
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| An expectant school going teenager. Photo courtesy |
The study which was release last week in Kitui Parkside villa Motel in Kitui town also indicated that 7.7% of Kitui teenage girls were already using modern family planning methods ranging from; emergency pills, injections, to implants. One would wonder what families teenagers were planning if not seeking freedom to spread their legs anyhow oblivious of other dangers which emanate from unprotected sex.
Sam Mulyanga, a governance and planning expert who made a candid presentation during the event said that population control was essential in planning for development and this is why our nation and every government ought to be very committed in birth control.
However, not only teenage girls are facing reproductive health challenges in Kitui. Lack of family planning equipment and drugs as well as lack of specialists in the area was sighed by the report as a major challenge in Kitui.
The survey indicated that 53% of married women in Kitui were not given comprehensive information on contraceptive, hence they lacked any information of the type of family planning the were using.
Speaking after presentation of the 2020 Kitui County family planning survey findings in Kitui Town, PMA’s Senior Technical Advisor Mary Thiongo said lack of comprehensive information on modern contraceptives was to blame for the apathy.
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| PMA’s Senior Technical Advisor Mary Thiongo: Photo by Boniface Mwaniki |
“We established that about 53 percent of women of reproductive age in Kitui don’t have access to proper information on usage and possible side effects of the various conventional family planning methods.
“The situation has allowed unfounded myths and misconceptions to take the center-stage thereby making a section of the women to shy away from contraceptives,” she argued noting that only a paltry 4 percent improvement in contraceptive uptake had been recorded between 2014 and 2020.
Ms Thiongo, however, noted that the county health department was working on an action plan aimed at bridging the information gap.
Story by: Boniface Mwaniki
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