Migori County Commissioner Boaz Cherutich has raised concern over the increasing number of teenage pregnancies in the County.
Cherutich who described the situation as one that ‘needs urgent attention’ asked Migori parents to take full responsibility for the behavior of their children while at home and outside home.
He blamed the uncontrolled use of social media among the teenagers which expose them to contents that drives them to early sex hence unwanted pregnancies.
Cherutich challenged parents to carefully monitor the whereabouts of their children and also control the contents they consume from social media in relation to their ages. He said idleness among the school going teenagers has been escalated by Covid-19 protocols leading to risky sexual behavior.
The County Commissioner also singled out drugs and substance abuse as being among the threats facing teenagers today.
Cherutich who spoke during a consultative forum on the revision of population policy for national development in a Migori Hotel revealed that in a period of one year, there were over 1000 cases of teenage pregnancy in Migori County.
“These are young girls between the ages of 12-18 years. Indeed, it’s alarming,” Commissioner Cherutich told population forum participants.
He proposed that resources should be directed towards reproductive health among teenagers as part of the key areas to be addressed by the revision of the population policy. Cherutich however called for a holistic approach towards managing teenage pregnancy in the County.
“Addressing issues of early teenage pregnancies should not be left to government and its agencies alone, parents must take full responsibility,” he added.
Addressing the same forum, Francis Kundu, an official from National Council for Population and Development reiterated that early pregnancies and child labor are among concerns facing Migori County.
Kundu said Migori County population concerns which were raised during the forums will be used while revising the population policy which has been effective from the year 2012.
The National Council Population for Population and Development is in process of revising population policy to align it to the population census results and emerging development concerns that have occurred in the past eight years of its implementation.
By Geoffrey Satia
