Mombasa County Woman Representative Zamzam Mohammed has noted with concern the shocking rise in cases of rape and defilement of teenage girls in the county.

According to Zamzam, it is high time that authorities and leadership take action to address the issue.

Speaking while issuing bursaries, Zamzam noted that there have also been cases of school girls being sexually abused by close relatives and neighbours.

"It is very sad that there are some people who have taken advantage of the fact that some of our girls cannot access sanitary pads, they end up abusing them sexually" said Zamzam.

The Mp called on Chief Justice Martha Koome to deploy more magistrates to deal with cases of rape in the county noting there has been a backlog of the cases at the Mombasa court.

Zamzam noted "We have so many cases of rape that have not yet been resolved. I would like to appeal to our CJ to deploy more magistrates to Mombasa to deal with this cases and perpetrators brought to book."

She further called on President William Ruto to revert the school girls’ sanitary pads programme from Education ministry to that of Gender.

"As Women representatives in our respective counties we are the ones who interact with these girls on a daily basis and are the ones who can easily distribute the sanitary pads. I would like to appeal to our president to ensure that the programme is reverted to the gender ministry" argued Zamzam.