Government must spare no effort in catching and punishing sex pests

Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed has confirmed that nine girls who sat their KCPE tests early this week gave birth during the exams period. This is startling statistics and we must now stop burying our heads in the sand on teen pregnancies. It is not the first time this has happened, but the figures point to a huge number of sex predators targeting school girls.

Why has this been allowed to happen to girls barely into their teens? Are the authorities aware of the enormity of the menace and what are school managers doing to curb this vice?

Data from United Nations Population Fund (UNFP) indicate that between June 2016 and July 2017, 378,397 adolescents in Kenya aged between 10 and 19 got pregnant. Organisations working on children issues say the number could be higher than reported. This must be scary for every parent with a daughter in school.

The biggest blame has been pointed at male teachers accused of luring school girls into illicit affairs. Classmates are also involved, but why can’t our girls be safe in school? In the past, school heads have been accused of encouraging tokenism where male teachers caught pants down with their learners are allowed to enter into backroom negotiations with parents who accept kickbacks instead of reporting the sex predators.

When teenagers give birth, their perspective on life is altered permanently. They are still in need of parenting, but suddenly find themselves in circumstances where they must fend for their offspring. In most cases, the male perpetrators take off, leaving the poor girl in a life of misery, ridicule and possibly, poverty.

We call for an urgent multi-disciplinary approach to curb the vice. Allowing young mothers to go back to school has offered hope for girls found in such circumstances. However, the society still views them as social misfits. The Ministry of Education must step up efforts to catch and punish sex predators, include more reproduction health topics in the curriculum and in general protect all girls in our schools.