Health CS Susan Nakhumicha, has said that she will not give condoms to underage age teenagers.

Speaking while on the African Union Summit 2023 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the CS said as a Christian woman, she vouches for abstinence as a prevention measure against STD’s and pregnancy’s among teens.

“I am a church woman, therefore number one is abstinence that we teach our youth, our adolescents to abstain,” she said.

The CS noted that, although condoms have been used across the world, her view is that Kenyan teens should be able to abstain with what she called ‘Firm Christian Foundation’.

“Where they cannot abstain, then condoms have been said as one of the ways to use protection. But I believe with firm Christian foundation, our adolescents should be able able to abstain,” she added.

Nakhumicha, who spoke during the joint African Union Development Agency-PEPFAR briefing commemorating 20 years of partnership to End HIV/AIDs as a public health threat in Africa and across the globe.

Winnie Byanyima

Her sentiments come after the executive director Winnie Byanyima urged Kenya to allow teenagers to access contraceptives.

The executive director , who was on a state visit in the country, noted that societal inequalities and injustices are driving up the HIV/AIDs pandemic and making groups of people such as young women and adolescent girls highly vulnerable to HIV/AIDs

“Increasing access isn’t just about putting clinics and making contraceptives’ available, it’s more than that, it’s about safe spaces where girls and young women can feel safe, have the privacy that they need and also have the choice of method they want so as to protect themselves from infections. HIV and STDs. This is not happening for every girl and every woman,’ she told Nation.

Also Read: Kenyans Anglican Church Rejects Church Of England Decision of Same Sex Marriages