End to Triple Threat was launched in Homa Bay, one of the counties reporting high numbers of adolescent pregnancies, new HIV infections, and gender-based violence.
According to the ministry's 2023 data, the country reported 22,154 new HIV infections, out of which 41 per cent occurred among young persons aged between 15 and 24 years.
In the same year, some 3,200 children aged between 10 and 19 years were infected with the disease.
Additionally, more than 250,000 girls presented to antenatal care (ANC) clinics, the majority of them aged between 10 and 17 years.
However, the presentation of the girls to facilities too late to mitigate HIV cases.
"The job is not done. We have committed as a government to top indicators that if we do across all sectors to entice young people to transition from school to work. We are on this missing-to-end triple threat. The triple threat must come to an end. We shall let our girls be girls and not mothers," emphasized Masha.
Homa Bay Governor, Gladys Wanga, who is also the National Chairperson in the fight against Triple Threat, emphasizes her commitment to ending the vice.
"The issue of sexual behavior, we must continue the conversation actively with our young people. There is no single silver bullet. It is a combination of efforts and many different interventions by many different partners which I am happy that we are now coming together to coordinate so that when moving, we move together" says Wanga.
She adds, "We must have this conversation and demystify the issue of HIV infections and even issue of teenage pregnancy, and sexual based gender violence".
Wanga attributes cases of Triple Threat to failures in addressing sexual behaviour in adolescents.
Although there is progress in ending the vice, she says, the county is still lagging behind.
"So long as we do not talk about it and hide and make it a taboo subject, there is going to be no progress. We are not where we should be. We want to end," said the governor.
According to the governor, the failure to get solutions to Triple Threat may blight the future of girls.
"I go to facilities in the county every other day, and there is no day when I do not find a teenager and adolescent delivering. Sometimes you would think adolescents have taken over deliveries from their mothers and adults. So it is a situation that we must end," says the governor.
If the county and country longs to have a bright future for girls, the vice must end, she says.
"If we are going to be guaranteed of a generation that will have our girls coming to take over after all of us here because if people are going to get married here, their futures are going to be destroyed. They are not going to complete their education, and they are doing that in numbers, then there is no guarantee that tomorrow there will stand here, and on international platforms speaking for Kenya" concludes the governor.