Teenage pregnancies in six Kericho sub-counties, particularly Bureti and Belgut, have reached their highest number in the past seven months.

Gender and Affirmative County Director Beatrice Chebet in a report she presented to the National Government Development during a county implementation coordination and management committee meeting at the Kericho CCS boardroom on Tuesday, said teen pregnancy has reached alarming levels in South Rift.

In Belgut Sub-County, 932 teenage girls were impregnated, while in Bureti Sub-County, 541 were impregnated between January 2025 and July 2021 – the highest number. Further, the gender officer reported that 3,331 teenage girls were pregnant across six sub-counties of Kericho during the same period.

Chebet noted that over the same period a total of 764 cases of sexual and gender based violence were reported in the county. For instance, Bureti Sub-County reported 373 cases of Covid-19, with Ainamoi coming second with 162 cases, Belgut having 38, Kipkelion East having 6, Kipkelion West having 18 and Soin Sigowet having 115 cases.

According to Chebet, the data that was sourced from the County Health Management Information System indicates that a safe space needed to be set up to protect victims of gender-based violence in the county.

Currently, Kericho County does not have a safe gender-based violence recovery centre.

Multiple strategies are needed to curb and address the triple threats of teenage pregnancies, early marriages and HIV/AIDS among the youth, the reported presented by Chebet says.

Kericho Acting County Commissioner Kibe Maguta has challenged parents in the county to take their parental roles seriously by actively inculcating, shaping and educating their school-going children with the virtues and norms of a responsible youth and responsible and better human being.

Maguta who chaired the meeting implored on parents to rise up and help in stemming the runaway indiscipline of the children especially the secondary school students who have burnt and destroyed school property in their learning institutions.

The commissioner expressed dismay at the breakdown of societal parental role on the parents in nurturing, educating and bringing up children, saying this alone cannot be left on the hands of the school head teachers and teachers to bring up their children into responsible adults.

The remarks come in the wake of the Sunday strike by students at Litein High School, who burnt down two learning and administration offices in their school and destroyed property worth millions of schools in a rampage never witnessed before in the region.

• A Tell Media / KNA reporters / By Dominic Cheres