This archive report was first published on 17 June 2020.
Published on June 17, 2020, a report revealed a sudden surge in teen pregnancies in Machakos County, with 4,000 school-going children impregnated since mid-March.
The data, released during the commemoration of the Day of the African Child, showed a parallel increase in teen pregnancies with coronavirus-related restrictions, including the closure of schools, which has since spread to over thirty counties.
Machakos Children's Officer Salome Muthama attributed the high number of cases to defilement by close family members, with most of the victims being innocent girls.
"During this coronavirus pandemic, we do have 4,000 impregnated girls. These are so many innocent girls," she said.
Salome noted that about 200 of these girls are aged 14 years and below, and posed the question, "How can a 12-year-old girl become a mother?"
She appealed for special court sittings to address and deal with these cases, citing the challenge of arraigning the perpetrators due to a shortage of advocates.
Machakos Senior Resident Magistrate Charles Ondieki revealed that the biggest impediment in prosecuting the cases was the shortage of advocates handling the matters.
