WRONG NUMBERS – DECODING KENYA’S TEEN PREGNANCY ‘SURGE’
Rodgers Odhiambo and Celine Abuga
WRONG NUMBERS – DECODING KENYA’S TEEN PREGNANCY ‘SURGE’
With schools in Kenya closed until 2021, parents would be forgiven for being apprehensive following an avalanche of local reports about a “spike” in teenage pregnancies.
Not to be left behind, international media reported “a surge” and claimed the country “has for long grappled with high teenage pregnancy rates”.
The resulting fierce debate about a “crisis” saw the president and his ministers wade in. The National Crime Research Centre, a state agency, is now investigating the issue.
But Africa Check found these claims are severely undermined by weak data.
Interestingly, despite a campaign against teenage pregnancy having been launched earlier in the year, the debate ignited after a June 2020 online news story reported that 4,000 schoolgirls had become pregnant since March in the eastern Kenya county of Machakos. Kenyan schools have been closed since March to stem the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The figure was attributed to the county children’s officer commenting on the International Day of the African Child. Africa Check has asked the official to clarify their remarks and we will update this article when we receive a response.
Kenya’s health ministry, however, refuted the figures. The numbers were “exaggerated, outrageous and do not reflect the actual statistics”, it said, estimating the correct number of pregnant teenagers as “a third” of the cases reported in the media.
The ministry’s chief administrative secretary said the Machakos data had been “inaccurately extrapolated”. The 4,000 figure did “not represent the numerical count of individual teenagers presenting to the clinic” with new pregnancies, said Dr Mercy Mwangangi. Instead it was of “multiple visits” of pregnant girls to hospitals, Alfred Mutua, the governor of Machakos county, said.
The ministry said: “This by no means suggests that we do not have a problem in our hands. As a matter of fact, teenage pregnancy remains a global challenge, and Kenya is no exception.”
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