Lamu County has recorded at least 1,073 cases of teenage pregnancy between 2024 and mid-2025, according to a report[1] submitted by the county’s gender sector working group to the Presidential Technical Working Group on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Femicide.

Of these, 789 cases were reported in 2024, with an additional 284 recorded between January and May 2025. According to Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI), who also submitted a report to the taskforce, many of these pregnancies resulted from rape and defilement, as well early marriages.

Alarmingly, another report by the National Syndemic Disease Control Council (NSDCC) found that an average of 696 adolescent girls were impregnated every day in 2023.

In 2024, the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), using the 2022 Kenya Demographic Health Survey report, identified the top 10 counties with the highest rates of teenage pregnancies among girls aged 15–19. KHRC also named the counties with the highest per capita contribution to this crisis.

In response, KHRC issued “red cards” to the Health Cabinet Secretary and governors of the most affected counties, symbolically declaring them unfit for public office due to their failure to protect vulnerable girls and ensure their return to school.

These symbolic actions were followed by formal letters to the Senate, National Assembly, and Council of Governors in 2024 and 2025. The letters called for urgent interventions, including:

To the Senate:

• Reconsider KHRC’s earlier petition and summon governors of the most affected counties to explain measures being taken to combat teenage pregnancy.

To the National Assembly:

1. Summon the Cabinet Secretary for Health to clarify existing policies and Kenya’s commitment to the Eastern and Southern Africa Commitment on comprehensive sexuality education.
2. Summon the Cabinet Secretary for Education to outline strategies ensuring that pregnant girls are re-admitted to school without conditions and provided with psychosocial support.

To the Council of Governors:

1. Lead efforts to address root causes of teenage pregnancy, including through Community Health Promoters.
2. Partner with the Ministry of Education to ensure unconditional school re-entry and support for pregnant girls.
3. Publicly denounce stigma and discrimination against pregnant students and commit to their continued education.
4. Collaborate with the Ministry of Health to address policy gaps on prevention and management of adolescent pregnancies.
5. Urge parents to fulfill their responsibilities under the Children’s Act and the Constitution to protect their children's wellbeing.

Despite these efforts, neither MPs, senators, nor governors have responded or taken the necessary actions to safeguard our young girls. This inaction leaves them vulnerable to sexual violence, without access to critical sexual and reproductive health services, and unable to complete their education.

Let down

The situation in Lamu is a sobering example of systemic failure. Kenyans, especially those in affected counties, must demand accountability from elected leaders who have failed to uphold their duties.

As the next general election approaches, citizens must evaluate the performance of MCAs, MPs, senators, governors, and the national government based on how they have protected—or failed to protect—our sexual and reproductive health rights. Those who stood by as our young girls’ futures were destroyed do not deserve our votes. They should be sent home.

Our daughters’ lives are hanging in the balance, and many will never get a second chance. We cannot give failed leaders another opportunity to serve in public office and continue to destroy the lives of our girls.

We maintain that the Senate, National Assembly, and Council of Governors must not shirk their responsibilities. They must summon the relevant governors and the Health CS to publicly account for the steps to protect our girls and stop this crisis. They must also summon the Education CS to explain what the ministry is doing to ensure the return to school policy is adhered to.

Signed

1. Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI)
2. Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC)

[1] Memorandum on gender-based violence (GBV), including femicide, by Lamu County Gender Sector Working Group, submitted to the chairperson, National Technical Working Group on GBV and Femicide, on May 23, 2025.

1. That, when presented with a court order authorizing the release of call data records (CDRs) that could implicate Kenyan security forces in crimes of murder or enforced disappearance, Safaricom PLC routinely passes responsibility for extraction and handling of that data to police attached to its Law Enforcement Liaison Office. This poses a serious conflict of interest by offering officers of the accused security forces an opportunity to handle the data and conceal evidence of state crime, as well as the fate of the victim.
2. That Safaricom PLC released CDRs it certified as authentic, despite bearing signs of manipulation and falsification. Safaricom PLC released these records in response to court orders arising from legal cases involving suspected state-enforced disappearances.
3. That Safaricom PLC failed to hand over data potentially vital to the investigation of state crime in Kenya, by habitually declining to provide full CDRs despite court orders to do so. In doing so, Safaricom PLC may have frustrated the course of justice.
4. That Safaricom PLC allowed security agencies routine access to consumer data (including but not limited to CDRs and other location data) without a court order, assisting in the tracking and capturing suspects. This is despite Kenyan security forces’ reputation for using unlawful tactics, including enforced disappearances, renditions, and extrajudicial killings of suspects.
5. That Safaricom PLC retained ‘old’ consumer data it claimed had been deleted, including data that could potentially aid the investigation of state crime. In doing so, Safaricom PLC may have frustrated the course of justice.
6. That Safaricom PLC, in concert with Neural Technologies Limited, developed software granting security agencies in Kenya virtually unfettered access to private consumer data, which assisted in the tracking and capture of suspects in operations, despite Kenyan security forces’ reputation for conducting enforced disappearances, renditions, and extrajudicial killings of suspects.
7. That, in concert with Neural Technologies Limited, police attached to Safaricom PLC used such software to predictively and preemptively profile Kenyan citizens, which would constitute invasive breaches of customers’ private data rights.

The alleged weighty and disturbing issues highlighted above make Safaricom PLC potentially liable for violating Chapter 4, Part 2, Sections 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 37, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, and 51 of the Constitution of Kenya, and Part 4, Sections 25, 26, 27, 28, and 29 of the Data Protection Act, 2019.

KHRC and MUHURI urge you to address the substance of the allegations with haste and clarify what steps Safaricom PLC will take to ensure that its data is not used unlawfully, whether by Safaricom staff, Kenyan security forces, or any other third party.

KHRC and MUHURI await Safaricom PLC's response within seven days of this correspondence.