Close to 200 school girls have been impregnated in Kaloleni sub-county, within Kilifi County during the time schools were closed.
Kaloleni Mp Paul Katana has claimed that among the pregnancy cases reported, the girls’ fathers were responsible for 10 of them.
Katana has urged parents to be responsible in order to reduce early pregnancies in the near future.
Parents have been accused of failing to monitor school-going girls and cater for their basic needs which have resulted in increased pregnancy cases in the area.
The ministry of education has asked parents to ensure that pregnant girls and teenage mothers who are students return to school.
President Uhuru Kenyatta had earlier directed that in order to ensure that they receive ante-natal treatment, pregnant schoolgirls should be registered but has yet to talk about helping them stay in school.
“This suggests that schools should be mandated with following-up with families to make sure the girls are protected and those families are encouraged to let them return to school”, he said.
The United Nations now estimates that almost 11 million primary and secondary students worldwide, including 5.2 million of whom are girls- are at a disadvantage of not returning to school following school closures due to COVID-19.
Many teenage mothers are out of school because they are stopped from returning or because they don’t get the assistance they need to return.
