Lack of stima causing teen pregnancies — Bungoma MCA

A Bungoma MCA has blamed  the high rate of teen pregnancy in his county on  lack of electricity.

Enock Chemorion Ndiema, the MCA for Chepyuk Ward in Kopsiro Division in Mt Elgon Constituency, claimed that lack of electricity in Chepyuk settlement has made sex the main form of ‘entertainment,’ which can explain the 20 teen-aged girls who found to be pregnant at Chelebei Secondary School.

“There is no electricity in many of the homes and a majority of the locals opt to sleep early. This means that their only form of entertainment is sex. They start as early as 8pm. What do you expect from that?” asked Ndiema, adding that if electricity was available, residents could seek other sources of entertainment, like watching drama series, movies or football.

“We need electricity in our homes to beat boredom that is associated with darkness, let the government make electricity affordable to each homes so that we can reduce the rate of pregnancy that is putting Mt Elgon into the world map for the wrong reasons,” said Ndiema calling for the arrest of those who ‘paged’ the teenage students. 

Chelebei Secondary School deputy Principal, David Emachar, disclosed that the girls were discovered pregnant after they returned from December holidays.

“The number is very high and we blame it on poverty, outdated culture and indiscipline among students. Let those responsible carry their own cross,” he said, adding that the men responsible are mostly local traders, boda boda riders, former and current male students and a few drop outs. 

Bungoma County Woman Rep Reginalda Wanyonyi, said Mt Elgon girl’s pregnancy should be named a county disaster. It will be remembered that in 2014, around 18 girls from the neighbouring Chepkurkur primary school were put in the family way causing political uproar.