Kenya records a total of 3,964 impregnate girls in five months

More than 28 girls on average became pregnant daily in Machakos, Kenya in the last five months, a new Kenya Health Information System survey has revealed, according to a news report by Daily Nation.

The data shows that a total of 3,964 girls aged 19 years and below were reported pregnant within that period.

Athi River is the most affected area while Kalama has the least number of reported pregnancies among girls of school-going age according to the data obtained from hospitals and which the Nation has seen.

Machakos County Children Officer, Salome Muthama said that the reported pregnancy cases among school girls are much less than the actual numbers.

The worrying trend has been linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, with authorities expressing fear that the data points to a bigger crisis.

Authorities partly blame parents and an ineffective justice system for the crisis that has got the region talking.

"Most of these cases you will find involve children who were taken from urban centers in the wake of COVID-19 and left in the hands of their grandmothers in the countryside as the parents returned to the towns," Muthama told reporters in Machakos Town.