Homa Bay County Government and its partners have embarked on mentoring boys in an effort to improve reproductive health and tackle teenage age pregnancies.
Governor Gladys Wanga said involving boys and men was instrumental in tackling the triple threat of HIV/Aids infection, sexual gender-based violence and teenage pregnancies.
She said they were employing new strategies in the fight against the triple threat so as to reverse the negative health indicators in the county.
Wanga said the triple threat in the county are destroying lives of young people who should be productive in future.
The Chief Executive Officer of the National Syndemic Diseases Control Council (NSDCC) Ruth Masha noted that statistics from the Ministry of Health indicate that 254,753 girls aged between 10-19 years became pregnant last year.
She said the data indicates that 20,143 children aged between 10-17 years experienced sexual and gender-based violence last year some resulting in teen pregnancies and HIV infections.
Speaking in a joint press briefing in the county headquarters Governor Wanga and Masha said the new strategy in the fight against triple threat will enable the country to have productive future generations.
“Our strategy is aimed at curbing teenage pregnancies because men and boys are the ones who impregnate the girls. It involves sensitising girls, men and boys with the objective of preventing early sex,” Wanga said.
Dr Masha expressed hope that triple threat will reduce significantly if the boys and men were mentored to develop self-control against sexual relationships.
“We have come up with a new strategy in which we involve men and boys by sensitising them to avoid extramarital sex with young girls,” Masha said.
Dr Masha said they work in collaboration with various partners such as United Nations agencies, Media for Environment, Science and Agriculture (MESHA), county governments and other non-governmental organisations.
“The triple threat is an enemy of socio-economic development, let us avoid sexual and gender-based violence to protect lives of our children,” Masha said.
Governor Wanga expressed concerns that failure to end triple threat will perpetuate gender imbalance in leadership.
“Triple threat is destroying lives of many girls. We cannot have future female leaders if we don’t end it,” Wanga said.
She said her administration is undertaking mentorship programmes with aim of increasing the age of first sexual intercourse among youth in her county.
“We are influencing our boys and girls to start sex when they are adults and able to make the right decisions which include safe sex,” Wanga said.
Deputy Governor Oyugi Magwanga urged men to stop violence in their families.
He argued that children brought up in disjointed families will likely themselves perpetuate violence in their adulthood.
By Dorene Aluoch and Davis Langat
