Nakuru County’s Gender, Culture and Social Services chief officer Ms Abduba Tume has called for concerted effort in ending the teenage pregnancy in the country.
Ms Tume also noted that governments should come up with comprehensive and friendly sex education policy for free access to information.
So far, at least 450 girls have failed to sit for their KCPE and KCSE national exams due to pregnancy while others have sat for their exams in maternity wards.
She was speaking at Bondeni Primary School when she presented food and non-food item donation by the County Government of Nakuru to a group of boys who have undergone a rite of passage.
One hundred and twenty-three boys from Bondeni, Kivumbini, Manyani and other low-income areas in Nakuru East and twenty-nine others from the street community have faced the knife.
Ms Tume noted that the County government has devised new ways of incorporating street children in formal technical education to help them earn a decent living.
“Adolescent girls will undergo an alternative rite of passage and be incorporated into mentorship programs to appreciate that they can succeed despite coming from lowly areas” she said.
Ms Rose Apicha, a community health worker and leader said the move was timely as it would help lid off the youth in drugs and substance abuse.
She decried that a sizeable number of young boys have engaged themselves in crimes such as Confirmed, Gaza and other proscribed gangs.
The Bondeni Community Empowerment Program organizing secretary Ezekiel Gitau commended the County Government of Nakuru and other partners for supporting the move.
According to a recent Kenya Demographic and Health Survey report on teenage pregnancy prevalence, Narok County topped the list with a rate of 40%, Samburu with 26%, Nakuru 18% with Lamu recording a 10%.
PHOTO/NGPU:Nakuru County’s Gender, Culture and Social Services chief officer Ms Abduba Tume speaking at Bondeni Primary School when she presented food and non-food item donation by the County Government of Nakuru to a group of boys who have undergone a rite of passage.
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