A head teacher in Kwale wants the government to ban discos to curb early pregnancies in the area. Salim Charo of Naserian primary school in Lunga Lunga on Monday said teenagers attend discos on Saturday night where they engage in promiscuity. “In my school, four girls are pregnant. Two have delivered but are yet to return to school,” he said.
Charo said parents allow their daughters to attend dances at night where they get involved in early sexual relations. “Parents are to be blamed for permitting young schoolgirls to go to discos where they interact with boys,” he said. Charo spoke at the school when Kwale Welfare and Education Association (KWEA) donated books to the institution. Lunga Lunga sub-county administrator Edward Chibu accused parents of forging transfer letters so that they can marry off their daughters.
“We had a case in which a parent brought a transfer letter of his child from Changamwe Primary School that was forged. The father had found a suitor for the daughter,” Chibu said.
Members of the association advised parents from the Duruma and Maasai communities to discard their negative traditions. They said parents should allow their daughters to pursue education instead of focusing on bride pride. “There’s no better way out of poverty for our community apart from education. Educate your children and you will own more than livestock,” KWEA’s Abubakar Ndawa said.
