Town blames church vigils for teenage pregnancies

Who knew

Punch reports that a Kenyan town called Narok County has placed a ban on church vigils as a result of the rising number of teenage pregnancies in the area.

The announcement was made by the County Commissioner, George Natembeya. Speaking with Citizen TV, he shared the statistics behind this ban.

According to him, 17 girls from Suswa Girls Secondary School were discovered to be pregnant in March, 2018.

This is the second time a town in Kenya has banned night vigils. The Daily Post reports that the first time was in Malindi, a town in southeastern Kenya where the Police stopped the vigils in 2014. The reason at the time was to stop extortion.

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Reactions to ban church vigils

The ban has got residents talking. One person named James Ndiga pointed that that teenage pregnancies have nothing to do with the church. In his words, “I started attending night prayers in my teens and have never heard people getting babies in the morning, the only place Kenyans feel more secure is in the church.”

He was supported by another resident named Samuel Nganga, who said, “This is ridiculous, I don’t understand how prayers at night can be related to immorality, I think the county commissioner has done no research. Do not provoke God in Narok, it might just bounce back on you. Don’t try.”

“Narok Pastors kindly plan a ‘Kesha’ (popular word used to refer to night prayers) at the Narok stadium and invite the county commissioner. This is one of the many ways of fighting Christ, but GOD is able in fighting his wars, have an eye on this, the one who banned ‘Kesha’ prayers will not be the one to uplift the ban,”Nicholas Muendo, a resident of Machakos who spoke with Uganda Christian News added.

Do you think the church should be blamed for the increase in teenage pregnancies?