Morality: Church rubbishes teen pregnancy claims, attacks contraceptive use

The National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) Secretary General Rev Canon Peter Karanja (left) and Chairman Archbishop Timothy Ndambuki at a press briefing on Friday. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

A church-based organisation has questioned the authenticity of the data on teen pregnancy.

Rev Canon Peter Karanja, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Kenya, claimed that the widely publicised stories of rampant teenage pregnancies could just be a ploy for commercial interests.

He said churches condemned the practice of trying to attract donor funds through exaggerations on how badly the youth were exposed to social ills such as teenage pregnancies.

“We wish to state here that the manner in which the statistics are being peddled is suspect, knowing the objective is to justify the sexualisation of school-going children," said Rev Karanja at the Jumuia conference in Limuru.

"The purpose could even be an attempt to promote the distribution of contraceptives by the manufacturers behind them."

Sex education

During the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination this year, a wave of teenage pregnancies was reported in different parts of the country.

Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed has since ordered investigations to determine the magnitude of teenage pregnancy in schools.

"Preliminary statistics show that the magnitude of the problem is far bigger than we had initially thought. We are staring at a national challenge," she said during the release of KCPE exam results in Mombasa.

The investigators will find out how many students fell pregnant in all primary and secondary schools in the country in a three-year period (2016-2018).

Karanja said churches condemn the comprehensive sex education that had allegedly been introduced in hundreds of schools around the country without consent from parents or official Government policy.