Dear Governor Lusaka, teenage mums are not the problem, we are
Bungoma Governor Kenneth Lusaka. He says pregnant girls and teenage mothers should not be allowed back in school as a deterrent measure.
What you need to know:
- Rhetoric from politicians has continuously proved to be manifestly unworthy of our time and attention, but Governor Lusaka’s words, while extremely tone-deaf, deserve attention because they speak to a national psyche.
- Subjecting these girls to such social stigma and disrupting their education exposes them to health and economic risks that will spill across generations. For many, school might be their only refuge and hope.
When I was 17, my father prohibited me from interacting with my newly found friend when we initially relocated to Nairobi. Her sin? She was 17 and had a two-year-old son.
My father was convinced that she would infect me with her “immoral” ways. He used unsavoury terms to describe her character, demonising her so much that I struggled to see her as a human being.
She became the girl all parents on the estate used as a cautionary tale. I can only imagine the loneliness she must have felt, living a life shrouded in stigma and shame.
Being a typically rebellious teenager, I naturally became her secret friend. Later, she confided in me that her own father kicked her bulging stomach one day, weeks before her due date.
She said it was as if he wanted her to die. I was reminded of my father’s reaction to my friend when I read a story in one of the local dailies about Bungoma Governor Kenneth Lusaka calling for pregnant teens to be barred from continuing with their studies to “tame the crisis in the county”.
He said a law prohibiting them from schooling would help the rest be “careful and responsible”.
Rhetoric from politicians has continuously proved to be manifestly unworthy of our time and attention, but Governor Lusaka’s words, while extremely tone-deaf, deserve attention because they speak to a national psyche.
Like my father and millions of others, the governor believes that teen pregnancy is a highly contagious disease, and the afflicted need to be quarantined for life lest they infect their pure peers with the virus of promiscuity.
Such beliefs don't just hurt teen mothers; they will hurt their children and society at large.
Subjecting these girls to such social stigma and disrupting their education exposes them to health and economic risks that will spill across generations.
For many, school might be their only refuge and hope.
His words also seem to absolve us (the adults) of responsibility for teen pregnancies. How can teenagers do better if they don’t know better?
From which fountain are they supposed to fetch knowledge about sex and sexuality if it’s not taught to them in schools and at home?
Comprehensive sexuality education will give them a better understanding of how to deal with their sexuality and their biological drivers.
The silences around sex and sexuality that have defined the upbringing of these teenage mums are our doing, not theirs.
Their curiosity is often met with silence. No wonder they seek to feed their curiosity through other means.
As long as comprehensive sexuality education continues to be woefully insufficient and faces constant opposition from morality propagandists and religious leaders, we will all be complicit in the issue of teenage pregnancies.
Consequently, the girls will remain trapped in this vicious cycle.
Let’s do the right thing for teenage mothers.
The writer comments on social and gender topics (@FaithOneya; [email protected]).
