Nandi : Child dependency upsurge as stakeholders call to tame.

Teenage pregnancy cases have been recorded to hiked the child dependency rate in Nandi county for the last one year.

According to the county health department, over 7, 000 girls between the age of 15-19 years have been reported to have delivered their infants between January and May 2021 after a long school holiday caused by the global pandemic.

This was unveiled by the stakeholders during marking of international population day on Sunday in Kapsabet where the county officials, religious leaders and National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) fervently agreed in the agency of putting unanimous efforts to eradicate teenage pregnancies in the region.

“There is an agency of controlling the birthrate in the region and since teenage pregnancy factor is escalating child dependency, the key players should move to implement the government family planning policies to avert the looming economic challenges that threaten to plunge the society into abject poverty,” said Mr Anampiu who is National council for population and Development Coordinator.

They pinpointed Kapsabet town, Nandi hills tea estates to have recorded the highest child dependency cases, claiming that girls hail from the poor families a few prone to vices including defilement, rape and early marriages cases.