Teenage pregnancy in Siaya County is on the
rise.
According to the County government of Siaya
under the department of health, teenage pregnancy has increased from 17% (2014)
to the current 35% (2016). This means that 3 out of 10 teenage girls in
Siaya County is either pregnant or has begun child bearing.
Adolescent and teenage pregnancy in girls
between the ages of 12 to 19 years remains a serious health and social problem
in Siaya County because it’s highly associated with high maternal mortality and
child morbidity and has led to thousands of girls dropping out of school.
Lack of comprehensive sexuality education in and
out of schools, limited access to affordable, accurate and high quality sexual
and reproductive health services, poverty, gender inequality, and inability for
women to negotiate for safer sex has contributed heavily to the rising cases of
teenage pregnancies in Siaya County.
In 2015 the government of Kenya under the
ministry of health launched the National Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive
Health Policy which mainly emphasizes the access to comprehensive sexuality
education and adolescent-friendly sexual and reproductive health information
and services.
Siaya County has not implemented this policy to
the latter. There has been little investment to make the health system
adolescent-friendly, leading to poor access to sexual and reproductive health
services and information by adolescents. Additionally comprehensive sexuality
education is not offered in schools despite evidence pointing to its
effectiveness in empowering adolescents to make informed decisions about their
sexuality and sexual health.
For Siaya County to end teenage pregnancy, there is need for policymakers in Siaya County to prioritize, plan and mobilize resources to improve and increase universal access and uptake of high quality, affordable, youth friendly, stigma free, Sexual and reproductive health services and information by young people in and out of schools.
