Teenage pregnancy should be a public policy concern in 2027 elections

Each year without fail, the teenage pregnancy crisis usually hits the headlines and yet, when it comes to elections, outgoing leaders are not held accountable for their failure in dealing with it, nor are prospective candidates judged based on what they intend to do about the crisis. In fact, in the 2022 elections, none of the presidential candidates had the teenage pregnancy issue in their manifestos. Nor did most governors, even from the most affected counties.

Instead, teenage pregnancy in Kenya is discussed as a question of morality. Girls are told to abstain from sex and blamed for their poor values when they get pregnant. And yet, looking at the annual statistics released by KNBS, a pattern begins to emerge. A girl born in Samburu has a 50% chance of not completing secondary school education due to teenage pregnancy, while a girl born in Nyeri at the same time only has a 5% chance of the same. The Samburu girl is not more promiscuous; it is the governance structures that have failed her, as the teenage pregnancy burden is highest among poor, less educated and rural communities.

Education is often regarded as the social vaccine to teenage pregnancies because studies show that an out-of-school teenage girl is 12 times more likely to suffer from early pregnancy compared to her in-school counterpart.

In 2025 alone, 235, 838 cases of teenage pregnancies were reported in Kenya. This is consistent with Kenya’s annual teenage pregnancy numbers, where one in five teenage girls is usually pregnant. This should alarm everyone because, unlike adults whose bodies are better suited for pregnancies, teenagers suffer from a higher rate of preeclampsia, obstructed labour and anaemia. These physical challenges are accompanied by social stigma and increased rates of depressive symptoms. This is made worse by the fact that only 50% of teenagers go back to school. Thus, limiting their earning potential over a lifetime.

This then begs the question: who is impregnating hundreds of thousands of Kenyan children each year? A FAWE 2024 study found that over 70% of teenage pregnancies in Kenya are perpetrated by the children’s own relatives, neighbours, and even child marriages. Of the remaining 30% by boyfriends, the Kenya Economic Survey of 2026 found that teenage girls below 18 years are more likely to have boyfriends above 18 years.

So, in essence, Kenya has a sexual violence crisis that translates to a fifth of all female teenagers in Kenya being pregnant each year.  This is exacerbated by poverty, lack of comprehensive sexual education for teenagers and Kenya’s burgeoning gender-based violence that sees most perpetrators walk free.

 Despite these drivers of teenage pregnancy being known, each time a bill is introduced in parliament that seeks to provide comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education and services for teenagers, religious quarters come out guns blazing in opposition, claiming that it will encourage sexual promiscuity among teenagers. But surprisingly, it is not necessary to introduce new laws as Kenya has a legal and policy framework that’s sufficient to deal with the crisis. The Constitution of Kenya, along with acts such as the Children’s Act, Health Act, Sexual Offences Act, and the Triple Threat Action plan, all have provisions for dealing with the various drivers of teenage pregnancy in Kenya. They address teenage pregnancy as a health, education, security and development issue. They also have guidelines on legal repercussions for sexual violence against children, provision of adolescent-friendly health services, prevention of teenage pregnancies and continued education for all pregnant and parenting girls.

Thus, Kenya’s continued high teenage pregnancy crisis is an indictment on the failure of the Kenyan government to keep Kenyan children safe from sexual violence, provide them with comprehensive sexual health services and education, and keep them in school. As Sulakshi Ram from Open Global Rights says, “By not implementing the myriad of policies that touch on ending teenage pregnancies, Kenya has violated the human rights of adolescent girls across multiple domains”.

Going into the 2027 elections, what Kenya needs is political commitment to eliminate teenage pregnancies. Voters should demand measurable promises such as the government halving the number of teenage pregnancies per year, ensuring adolescent-friendly reproductive health services in every sub-county, guaranteed and enforced school re-entry, ring-fenced funding for prevention and child protection.

One child left behind is one too many; more than 200,000 adolescent pregnancies every year is not merely reprehensible; it is a dereliction of public duty and an indefensible failure of governance for which political leaders must be held accountable.