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By Isabella Maua
The Kenya Red Cross Bungoma has held intense dialogue sessions with the clergy and teenagers across Mt. Elgon to discuss the prevention of gender-based violence and teenage pregnancies.
The two-day separate events incorporated teenagers and youth from Chepkitale in Kaptama and clergy from Cheptais as part of the 16-day activism against GBV.
The main aim of the dialogues was to explore the root causes of GBV and rising teenage pregnancies, their consequences, and local solutions to combat the vice.
According to Sosi Chemosit, an 80-year-old council of elders chair who doubles up as a facilitator, many cases of incest have been reported in Chepkitale areas where, due to topography and environmental factors, victims never find justice as they deserve.
The over 100 teenagers who were drawn from Stend, Tomoi, and Laboot villages echoed Chemosit’s sentiments, reporting that drunkenness among parents has been the root cause of gender-based violence in many of their homes.
In Cheptais, the clergy observed that early marriages remain a key challenge in the region, mostly propelled by secretive FGM and early unwanted pregnancies.
Dr. Jesse Wamocho, who works with Bungoma County, emphasized the need for teenagers to visit health centers and get knowledge on reproductive health.
“We not only give contraceptives, but we also teach the teens by taking them through guidance and counseling sessions and equipping them with defense tactics whenever they are at risk of violence like rape or defilement,” divulged Dr. Wamocho.
Evans Nyakundi also accentuated the doctor’s point by revealing that many of the infertility cases being reported are due to the misuse of emergency contraceptive pills, which are being sold haphazardly to teenage girls who act oblivious to the pending STIs and HIV infections.
The clergy and local administrators have the ball in their courts since Bungoma County is also leading in drug and substance abuse, not forgetting cases of homosexuality and same-sex relationships, though in undertones.
In 2022, teenage access to contraception data was at 62 for ages between 10 to 14, 4493 for ages 15 to 19 totalling to 4555 in Bungoma County.
Among them,