A children's officer in Naivasha sub county has urged parents to be cautious with their children’s out of sight behaviour saying that the rot in the society was as a result irresponsible parenting.
He lamented about the rising cases to teenage pregnancies and drug abuse saying that something had to be done to save the future generation.
Speaking at a Naivasha hotel over the weekend during a youth’s forum, Sub County children affairs officer John Chege advised parents to take full responsibility of their children to avert the growing cases of bad behaviour associated with the youth.
“Let’s not seat back and watch such things happen; this is a real disaster in waiting because in future, there will be nobody to talk to and advise them. This is the time,” he noted.
According to Chege, teenage pregnancies were forcing many girls out of school something he says impacts on the rights of the girl child.
He called on chiefs, their assistants, village elders, teachers and religious leaders to work together in ensuring all girls have full access to school so that they can be able to make the right decisions.
“This behaviour is mostly affecting our girls in villages and slums where they are forced to stay out of class due to the situation and circumstances they live under, it’s our responsibility to join hands for a safe society,” he noted.
The children’s officer expressed confidence that the situation change if parents and care givers took up the initiative of being role models to their young ones and society as a whole.
“The problem is, we as parents are engaged in doing what is not right in front of our children not knowing that children tend to believe in everything a parent does,” he said.
A 2014 research commissioned by Ipsos Synnovate indicates that out of 10 girls 2 are forced out of class because of teenage pregnancies.