Ever seen a scenario where the people obligated to safeguard morals are the ones that end up breaking them? Well, such is the case of the Principal at Habaswein Mixed Secondary School who was arrested for allegedly raping a KCSE candidate.
The head teacher is expected to be arraigned in Court to face rape charges.
This comes even as the KCSE exams officially kicked off all over the country with Education CS Amina Mohammed promising that her ministry will deliver clean exams.
The CS on Monday led the opening of KCSE exam storage containers in Mombasa.
At least 664,585 candidates wrote their Mathematics paper in the morning. Chemistry is slated for afternoon.
Amina further ordered quality assurance officers to furnish the ministry with reports on the state of teen pregnancies in schools.
The CS said the rising number of candidates delivering during the national exams was wanting.
“We must have this conversation (about teenage pregnancies). We cannot bury our heads in the sand,” she said.
“We are working on a policy on teenage pregnancy which will be rolled out soon.”
The CS said she will hold talks with her Health counterpart Sicily Kariuki to put up facilities in hospitals to be used by candidates sitting exams while seeking treatment.
Cases of teen pregnancies have been on the rise with the just concluded KCPE examinations revealing some shocking statistics with Kilifi county apparently leading in the pregnancies.
Over 13,000 pregnancies were recorded among girls aged between 10-19 in the last one year in Kilifi County.
In a statement issued on Monday, Kilifi Children Affairs Coordinator George Migosi said over the last one year, the County Health department recorded 13,624 pregnancies among teenage girls aged between 15-19.
He added that an additional 290 cases were reported among girls aged between 10-14.
“Among children aged between 10-14 we recorded 290 pregnancies, and these are the ones that were recorded at health centres. Among girls between 15-19 we had 13,624 cases,” said Migosi. “This is very alarming since we are talking about close to 14,000 cases over a period of one year.”
Security has been tightened all over the country and especially in examination centers to ensure the integrity of the ongoing test is not compromised.
The 664,585 candidates began with Mathematics paper 1 in the morning and later sit Chemistry paper I in the afternoon, with the examination set to continue until November 28.
Which long lasting solution should the government come up with to curb the increasing number of teen pregnancies?