'More Mombasa girls in school as pregnancy rates drop'

MOMBASA: The teenage pregnancy rate in the county has dropped to 21 per cent from the 2008-09 Kenya Demographic Health Survey (KDHS) of 26 per cent.

National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) Regional Co-ordinator Margaret Mwaila said the drop is of the 2014 survey.

Ms Mwaila said the drop was as a result of the efforts done in educating the girl child on the importance of education and family planning.

She said despite the drop, there are worrying cases where girls as young as nine years were already mothers.

Mwaila said there is need for young people in and outside school to get reproductive health information and services especially those in hard to reach areas, as they are the most affected.

"The teenage pregnancy rate in Mombasa County has gone down slightly to 21 per cent. The drop is as a result of continuous civic education to the locals about educating the girl child and talking about the importance of family planning," she explained.

She, however, said were receiving backlash from locals on the issue of family planning since its not acceptable to some communities due to religious and cultural practices.

Mwaila added that the council, together with other stakeholders, visits high schools to talk to teenagers who are sexually active to encourage them to use family planning.

"Discussing family planning has been quite a challenge, though, to some places it has been acceptable and young girls are happy to have that conversation. This has helped a lot in our efforts to reduce this cases of teen pregnancies as girls opt to stay in school and complete their education," she added.

At the same time, the NCPD co-ordinator said the population growth in the region was growing at a high rate and stands at 3.5 per cent, expressing the need for child spacing.

She said the region's population should be growing at a slower rate and not the other way round.

"There is a way a population should be. It should be growing at a slower rate. People can have the number of children they want but at a much slower rate and that is why we encourage the community to work on spacing their children," she said.