According to a situational analysis report on teenage pregnancies by FAWE-Kenya, the country is grappling with 27.4% cases of teenage pregnancies for girls aged between 15 to 18 years.
According to the report, Narok, Kajiado and Turkana counties have the highest prevalence rates of 43.3%, 35.6%, and 34.2% respectively.
Kajiado County also faces other challenges like child marriages, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), and human trafficking, which may take the forms of labour and sex trafficking of vulnerable populations from across the region.
Vulnerable young women and girls, including refugees and immigrants, grapple with climate change and depressed economic conditions, which affect their livelihoods and push many to negative coping strategies such as child marriages, human trafficking for labour, and sex trafficking.
They are robbed of fundamental rights and freedoms, and are more exposed to severe physical, emotional and psycho-social abuse.
Child marriage is a common coping mechanism for many households facing economic pressures in informal settlements, particularly in areas where predominant populations of refugees and forcefully displaced persons reside, as well as indigenous communities in Kajiado County.
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This practice has stripped many girls of their childhoods, educational opportunities and thrust them into adult roles and responsibilities that they are not physically, mentally and emotionally prepared for.
Additionally, FGM remains prevalent among the Maasai and other communities around the border areas of Kenya and Tanzania, with severe health effects such as infections, complications during child birth, and psychological trauma.
Teenage pregnancies are then the inevitable result of these ravages more often, which pose severe health risks such as maternal complications, curtailed education, and a disillusioned future, leaving them more vulnerable to poverty and violence than other groups.
Tackling these challenges demands a shift in community attitudes, stronger legal frameworks, and collaboration among stakeholders, and Kajiado County has made key strides in terms of establishing the Eradication of FGM Policy.
The Forum for Women in Development, Democracy and Justice (FODDAJ) has come out strongly to help with practical interventions to combat injustices against these women and girls.
With the generous support of African Women Development Fund (AWDF), the organization has designed a project dubbed “Promoting inter-agency coordination and collective actions at local and national levels to combat human trafficking of adolescent girls and young women.”
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Nancy Sitima, FODDAJ Executive Director, says the project, being implemented in Kajiado County and Kamukunji Sub-county, aims at empowering young women, front line responders, and law enforcement authorities with improved capacities to investigate, detect and prevent human trafficking and uphold a human rights approach when handling victims of human trafficking and GBV.
The project facilitates inter-agency coordination meetings between the National Police Service, National Government Administration Officials (NGAO), Kajiado County Gender Sector Working Group, and Court Users Committee to address human trafficking. It also builds the capacity of these groups to handle the victims of the vices from a human rights perspective.
The project also supports discussions with key stakeholders to establish a GBV Policy in Kajiado County, and so far it has yielded significant results in amplifying women and girls’ voices as agents of policy influence and change, as well as advocacy.
Additionally, there has been strengthened capacity of key stakeholders in women and child protection, including the Judiciary, law enforcement, MCAs, security officials and community advocates, in collective advocacy and action to eradicate GBV and human trafficking.
By our reporter
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