By Jennifer Acheng
Kotido municipal council has been named the top most hot spot for teenage pregnancy and child marriages.
This was revealed recently by the Kotido district senior probation officer Emmy Brian Etuko, during the roll out of the second national strategy to end teenage pregnancy and child marriage at the district headquarters.
Speaking during the meeting, Etuko revealed that from April 2022, Kotido municipal council alone registered 432 teenage pregnancy and child marriage related cases, followed by Kotido sub-county with 167 cases. Other hot spots include Panyangara sub-county with 82 cases, Kacheri sub-county with 51 cases, Nakapelimoru registered 29 and Rengen registered 13 cases.
In the same duration, Etuko says physical assault cases alone accounted for 351 cases, followed by denial of opportunities and services with 75 cases. Rape had 38 cases, forced marriage at 27 cases, psychological abuse accounted for 16 cases, sexual assault registered 1 case, and defilement accounted for 10 cases.
He attributes the rising number of cases to poverty, high illiteracy levels, and high alcohol consumption among others.
Franco Tolea, the assistant commissioner children’s affairs at the ministry of gender labor and social development says at the national level, the country registered 354,736 teenage pregnancies, meanwhile in 2021, there were 290,209 cases, making an average of 32,000 cases per month.
Tolea also revealed that 654 billion shillings is lost annually to fight the vice
