Health experts have joined MPs in the call for the introduction of sex education in schools to curb new HIV infections , teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases among school-going children.
The proposal comes barely a week after religious leaders opposed the move.
The experts, led by National Syndemic Diseases Control Council (NSDCC) chief executive Ruth Laibon, said many girls are dropping out of school due to teenage pregnancies thus multiplying the poverty cycle in their communities.
“When you say 260,000 girls dropped out of school in one year because they presented themselves at the antenatal clinic as pregnant, it means that in just under six years we have had almost 2.7 million girls who have come to our facilities to deliver,” said Dr Laibon.
She went on: “Those girls will have children and this means that there is a likelihood of a poverty cycle and reinforcing the challenges the girls face and also creating another vulnerability to HIV/Aids.”
Prof Ruth Nduati, an epidemiologist and paediatrician said the consent age for sex in Kenya is 18.
“When you are a child you don’t have the legal right to make consent because they ignore that. But the ethos of that principle is to encourage abstinence as a strategy for preventing sexually transmitted infections among children. We have had successes as per the Kenya Demographic Health Survey, as the age of sexual debut has gone up to 17 for boys and 18 for girls,” said the medical expert.
Prof Nduati said deferring sexual debuts implies children are not exposed to sexual infections as they will be busy in school.
“Research has shown that early sexual debuts curtails their ability to achieve their human capital, meaning they will drop out of school, become victims of GBV and go into the cycle of poverty,” added the expert.
However, Prof Nduati urged parents to be actively involved in their teenage child’s life. She further urged the church and community to be proactive in sexual education to save the youth from HIV/Aids.
The two were speaking in Mombasa during a press conference ahead of the Maisha Conference to review progress made in the war on HIV/Aids.
Last week, the clergy opposed the proposal to introduce comprehensive sex education in schools and instead called for the use of chaplains to offer guidance to learners.
Kirinyaga Woman Representative Jane Maina has called for the introduction of comprehensive health, wellness and sex education in the curriculum as a core subject in schools.
