Kakamega Governor’s wife Mrs. Janet Barasa has lamented over increased rate of teenage pregnancies in Butere Sub County.
Mrs. Barasa said if the worrying trend is not checked then the future generation of the girl child is endangered.
She therefore encouraged parents to be more vigilant of their daughter’s whereabouts and take measures to safeguard them.
“The children have now closed schools, it is your duty to protect them from sex predators and caution them about dangers of early pregnancy,” she said.
Speaking Thursday while commemorating World Aids Day in Butere primary school, she said poverty and peer pressure were the main causes of early pregnancies among the girls.
Barasa said among the intervention measures they have put in place to reduce the menace include awareness creation, enactment of the Kakamega County Sexual Gender Based Violence policy, the back-to-school policy, the multi-agency rapid result initiative and the establishment of young mother clubs in health facilities across the county.
The Sexual Gender Based Violence policy seeks to protect and promote reproductive health education among teenagers.
Butere currently leads the pack of sub counties with the highest number of teenage pregnancies at 29 percent followed by Ikolomani (28) and Mumias West at 26 percent.
Others are Navakholo at 23, Malava 19.6 and Lurambi at 16 percent.
