Education stakeholders from Tana River county have expressed concern over the high number of girls getting pregnant as a deliberate choice to drop out of school.
Wailuwana community leader king Hayu Barbican lamented that grinding poverty and lack of emotional support has made some girls opt to get pregnant so as not to go to school.
“Many girls who do not perform well in school get pregnant so that they can be married off early and avoid school,” he lamented, noting with concern that despite the fact that the county is considered marginalized, the residents have failed to empower themselves by educating their children to get rid of poverty.
‘Education is the key to life hence I call upon parents to enrol their children in schools,’ he advised, as he called upon stakeholders to help stop such vices lest the whole community is ruined.
The community leader blamed women for encouraging early child marriages.
“Some women arrange for their young daughters to marry their friends’ children. Such marriages are aimed to strengthen the friendship between the two families.
To this end, Nigateni Community Based Organization (CBO) has launched an aggressive awareness campaign dubbed Operation Back to School (OBS) which seeks to curb the high cases of teenage pregnancies in the area.
The campaign encourages teachers, parents and the community at large be responsible for the education of each child, just like in the old days where communal raising of a child existed.
CECM for Tourism Abass Kunyo called for stern action against those impregnating schoolgirls and marrying them off early.
By Amoto Ndiewo
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