Uasin Gishu Deputy Governor Daniel Chemno has described as a disaster the rising cases of school-going girls being impregnated in the county.
According to Chemno, within the last four years, Uasin Gishu County has reported 27,825 pregnancies of school girls.
The deputy county boss says the number is too high, an equivalent of over 70 schools closed down.
“In a day school, if children are 50 per class, and one school has two streams of 100 children, it means a school has 400 children. Compared that with the number of girls impregnated, it means we have closed down 70 schools,” Daniel Chemno lamented.
He noted that teenage pregnancies were shuttering the future of many girls who would have ended up being teachers, doctors, engineers, among other professionals in the future.
Chemno has now issued a warning to adults that will be found culpable of impregnating school-going children.
“As a county, we will not allow this. The law is very clear on people involved in defilement. Those involved, we will follow them and ensure they are prosecuted,” said the Deputy Governor.
He says the community should help guard and protect young girls and ensure they complete their studies.
“Children should not be turned into the family way, they should be allowed to complete school,” Daniel Chemno noted.
According to the Sexual Offences Act, a person who commits an act that causes penetration with a child is guilty of an offense termed defilement.
The Act stipulates that defilement of a child 11 years and below carries a sentence of life imprisonment.
Defilement of a child between the ages of 12 to 15 carries a sentence of 20 years imprisonment.
For defilement of a child between 16-18 years old, the offense carries a sentence of 15 years imprisonment.
