Forty one students have given birth in Kitui County since the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations began on Monday.
Kitui County Education Officer Salesa Adano said an additional 72 girls from the county who are candidates are pregnant.
“This is just too difficult even to say considering the number is 113,” said Adano.
He said the Education Department is puzzled because no parent appears concerned.
“No parent has raised a red flag. No parent has said, look, something is happening with my daughter. Not a single chief has raised, not a single community member… but it is us as a department are saying that something is very seriously wrong,” he added.
He said he is baffled by the issue that up to now they are not aware who is responsible for the pregnancies.
“it could be from outside the school, within the school or any other person out there… .. a young boy, man, adult, senior person. It could be anybody” he said.
Teen Pregnancy Trend in Kenya
Earlier this month, another County in Kenya (Kilifi county) released a shocking report indicating that 13, 624 pregnancies were reported among school children aged between 15 and 19 years for the last one year.
This report came amidst public debate on rising cases of teenage pregnancies as KCPE (Kenya Certificate of Primary Education) and KCSE (Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education) candidates sat for their national examinations.
Kilifi County Children Affairs Coordinator George Migosi said Kilifi North Sub-county led with 3,134 pregnancies followed by Magarini with 2,861 and Kaloleni with 2,180 cases.
Mr Migosi further said the number has steadily risen over the past years due to parental negligence.
“In addition, Kilifi South and Malindi reported 1,771 cases each, while Ganze and Rabai reported 1,362 and 545 cases respectively,” he said adding that “the facts are based on compiled County Health department records.”
Other than the 13, 624 cases, the children officer said an additional 290 cases were reported among girls aged between 10-14 years.
“This is an alarming trend since we are talking about close to 14,000 cases of teenage pregnancies which have been reported for one year in the county,” he added.
