According to the Reproductive Health Policy, girls who have not attained the age of 18 years which the government recognises as the legal age one can consent for sex, should not be allowed to access contraceptives.
Janet Angote, the Kakamega County Health Reproductive Coordinator says the policy does not allow girls below the age of 18 years to use contraceptives and vows to ensure the rules and regulations spelt out in the policy are adhered to.
Angote argues that sexually active adolescent girls need the guidance of their parents to prevent unplanned pregnancies.
"If the parent consents to her daughter who is below 18 years to use contraceptives, we shall do that but after proper counseling. We however encourage abstinence by our girls until they reach the right age of engaging in sex," said Ms Angote
Prof Janet Kasili, Kakamega County First Lady, who has launched an initiative to end teenage pregnancy in the county is in agreement with the reproductive health policy that teenage girls should not use contraceptives.
But she is of the view that only teenage girls who are sexually active ought to be considered.
"As a county, we shall abide by the policy but for sexually active teenagers who cannot abstain, let them be allowed to use family planning methods so long as a parent or guardian has consented to it," said Kasili in an interview.
The policy says a health practitioner (clinician, nurse, or doctor) found to have put a teenager on family planning would be punished but it is mum on punishment for medical practitioners administering contraceptives to minors.
Kakamega reports about 12,900 teenage pregnancies annually and on average, about one in five (19 percent) of girls, aged 15-19 years (12.3 percent) in the county have begun giving birth according to Kenya Demographic Health Survey (KDHS) 2022 report.
The youngest girl to give birth in Kakamega County in 2022 was 13 years old. Nationally, the KDHS report shows that 15 per cent of women aged between 15-19 years have ever been pregnant; 12 per cent have had a live birth, one per cent have had a pregnancy loss, and three per cent are currently pregnant.
In 2021, 558 young girls aged between 10-13 years got pregnant in Kakamega.