Saumu Abdala was 14 and in class eight when she discovered she was pregnant. It halted a lot of things in her life, including the pursuit of her dream to become an engineer. “The hardest part is finding food for the baby. If you want to leave to look for a job, your parents tell you to take the baby with you,” she says. Tenga says Kwale has hundreds of teenagers who are out of school due to early pregnancy. He tells of the many children he knows who have resorted to commercial sex after giving up on resuming school. “It reaches a point where everything stops making sense. Your baby cries the whole night. There is no food so your body cannot produce milk. You look for ways to make things work. When someone promises to marry you, you take the offer,” says one of the girls who admits that on many nights she goes out to “piga densi”, their euphemism for prostitution. They are a part of the often ignored yet rapidly growing statistics of young people dropping out of school as the country struggles to fulfil the “education for all” vision. Data from the Ministry of Health’s District Health Information System (DHIS) paint a grim picture of an estimated 378,497 adolescent girls between the ages of 10-19 presented with pregnancy across Kenya between July 2016 and June 2017.

Kigen Korir, a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) programme officer, says adolescents lack parental guidance and education programmes on how to deal with issues of sexual reproductive health. Changed future “Incidences of sexual and gender-based violence are still high and have been linked to boda boda riders, teachers, fishermen, touts and in some instances family members,” he says. Mwejuma Ali, one of the students, says even though going to school with a baby is tedious, she appreciates the prospects of a changed future. She got pregnant at 16.  “When you get pregnant, you drop out because of the shame. Everyone believes you have known older men and you will corrupt other children,” she says. Their lessons are often scheduled for when schools are closed, or in the afternoon when they can get an extra room to study. Mwejuma says she loves the idea of young mothers attending classes after others have gone home, or during school holidays. “It can be uncomfortable for other pupils who were once your classmates to stare at you when you walk to school with a baby,” she says.  Kigen says although Kenya has made great strides in institutionalising and facilitating school continuation and re-entry among pregnant girls, there is still stigma. “Some schools are yet to fully comply with the provisions of existing policies on school re-entry. Stigma and discrimination is still rampant in schools so most girls prefer to drop out of school during pregnancy or not to return to their schools after pregnancy for fear of being ridiculed,” he says.

Saumu Abdala was 14 and in class eight when she discovered she was pregnant. It halted a lot of things in her life, including the pursuit of her dream to become an engineer. “The hardest part is finding food for the baby. If you want to leave to look for a job, your parents tell you to take the baby with you,” she says. Tenga says Kwale has hundreds of teenagers who are out of school due to early pregnancy. He tells of the many children he knows who have resorted to commercial sex after giving up on resuming school. “It reaches a point where everything stops making sense. Your baby cries the whole night. There is no food so your body cannot produce milk. You look for ways to make things work. When someone promises to marry you, you take the offer,” says one of the girls who admits that on many nights she goes out to “piga densi”, their euphemism for prostitution. They are a part of the often ignored yet rapidly growing statistics of young people dropping out of school as the country struggles to fulfil the “education for all” vision. Data from the Ministry of Health’s District Health Information System (DHIS) paint a grim picture of an estimated 378,497 adolescent girls between the ages of 10-19 presented with pregnancy across Kenya between July 2016 and June 2017.

Kigen Korir, a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) programme officer, says adolescents lack parental guidance and education programmes on how to deal with issues of sexual reproductive health. Changed future “Incidences of sexual and gender-based violence are still high and have been linked to boda boda riders, teachers, fishermen, touts and in some instances family members,” he says. Mwejuma Ali, one of the students, says even though going to school with a baby is tedious, she appreciates the prospects of a changed future. She got pregnant at 16.  “When you get pregnant, you drop out because of the shame. Everyone believes you have known older men and you will corrupt other children,” she says. Their lessons are often scheduled for when schools are closed, or in the afternoon when they can get an extra room to study. Mwejuma says she loves the idea of young mothers attending classes after others have gone home, or during school holidays. “It can be uncomfortable for other pupils who were once your classmates to stare at you when you walk to school with a baby,” she says.  Kigen says although Kenya has made great strides in institutionalising and facilitating school continuation and re-entry among pregnant girls, there is still stigma. “Some schools are yet to fully comply with the provisions of existing policies on school re-entry. Stigma and discrimination is still rampant in schools so most girls prefer to drop out of school during pregnancy or not to return to their schools after pregnancy for fear of being ridiculed,” he says.