More often than not, parents and guardians have been accused of failing to report cases of children’s sexual abuse and gender-based violence to the necessary authority because of fear of dire consequences and or lack of information. This gives the perpetrators of such vices at leeway with the law.
Hence, Health Principal Secretary (PS) Susan Mochache has called upon parents to be vigilant about the sexual well-being of their children.
Speaking at Tendere grounds in Kisii, Mochache noted that there has been an increase in the rate of teenage pregnancies, Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus (HIV) infections in the recent past amongst the youth aged between 10 years to 19 years often known as the ‘triple threat’.
This increase has negatively impacted on the economic growth of the nation and also affected the education progress of the youngsters, especially the young girls who get impregnated forcing them to drop out of schools, she noted.
“The highest cases of new HIV infections recorded in the recent past are the youth, making up over 63 per cent of the total cases of infections in the country. Most of these cases, over 30 per cent are the boys and girls who go through sexual and Gender-Based Violence such as rape. I urge the Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) to kick up a notch on disease prevention and community health sensitization to help the country achieve zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths by the year 2030,” said Mochache.
Also present at the function was the Chief Executive Officer of National AIDS Control Council (NACC) Dr. Ruth Masha.
She encouraged parents to educate their children from a tender age about their children’s sexuality.
Dr Masha urged the elders, especially men to be forefront in the fight against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), and make it a personal decision within their conscience, which she said was also the best solution to curb the rising cases of Gender-Based Violence (GBV).
She lauded the Kisii community for the steady decrease in the HIV infection in the recent past but noted the need to even reduce the cases even more.
“There has been a decrease in the number of HIV infections in Kisii, even though the number is still high, there is a show of improvement. I congratulate you for this and urge you to even take more precautions to reduce the infection rate,” said Dr Masha.
The County Executive Committee (CEC) member for Health Services in Kisii County Sarah Omache applauded the efforts the Ministry of Health has put in place at the national level to curb the increasing cases of triple threat.
She noted that the county department of health would sensitize the people in the region about the mentioned public health threats through the help of the CHVs to turn the curve downwards.
In attendance were members of the National Government Administration Officers (NGAO) and residents of the Gucha region.
The NGAO team pledged to play part in the sensitization of the community on the health hazards.
By Misheba Alfred
