Photo courtesy of CGTN Africa

An alarming increase in the number of teenage pregnancies and the incidences of HIV-Aids in Nairobi witnessed since the Covid-19 pandemic has been attributed to attributed to a corresponding rise in teen ‘orgies’, has prompted the capital’s government to formulate a new policy framework to address the issue.

New ‘Framework’ to address sexual health challenges

The County Adolescent and Youth Reproductive Health Implementation Framework is being formulated in cooperation with Network for Adolescent and Youth of Africa (NAYA) and aims to address sexual health challenges confronting young people.

Speaking at a consultative meeting with Nairobi government health representatives in Naivasha last week (as quoted in The Star), Robert Aseda, the head of programmes for NAYA, said there was an urgent need address the challenges facing teenagers.

“A study conducted in Nairobi shows a rise in sexual orgies and the high pregnancies recorded are among teenagers, thus complicating the situation”, he told the meeting.

Risky Sexual Behaviour

Aseda said the framework would help achieve universal health coverage goals but that the current negative health outcomes for adolescents and young people in Nairobi arose from ‘early sexual debut’ and risky sexual behavior including unprotected sex and multiple partners.

Speaking on behalf of the Centre for the Study of Adolescence, Dollarman Natse said, “Many young people lack comprehensive and correct information on their sexuality, largely because of the embarrassment, silence and disapproval of open discussion of sexual matters.”

HIV-Aids Awareness

The Centre for the Study of Adolescence are working with the Nairobi Youth Advisory Council on the project.

Niyibeshaho Marie Merci, the president of the Nairobi Youth Advisory Council stressed concern at the low number of women who had knowledge of HIV-Aids compared to men.

“As we review this framework”, she said, “we are keen to address the issue of low HIV-Aids awareness among women, which stands at 58 percent compared to men, which is 74 percent.”

Kenya Forum readers may also be interested in the following articles from the archives:

The impact of Covd-19 on adolescents in Kenya (16/7/2021)

Africa’s Demographic Dividend: harnessing a youthful population (11/9/2023)

Word population day: teen HIV infections alarming (12/7/2022)

Teenage pregnancies in Kenya: time to reconsider our approach (12/5/2021)

Is sexting shaping the spread of HIV-Aids? (13/3/2017)

Sex education Could Google’s list of ‘Most searched things in Kenya’ be an indication of curious young people (12/8/2021)