Teenage motherhood on the rise

Kenya is among countries with a large number of teenage mothers globally, a new report has said.

Nearly three in every 10 girls are having babies and disrupting their schooling, the study by the UN’s special envoy for global education, Mr Gordon Brown, has said.

Among 25 countries selected for the survey based on mothers under 18 years, Kenya is ranked sixth. However, it fared better than all its neighbours in the East African region.

Uganda and Tanzania are the 18th and 19th worst countries.

According to the report by the former UK Prime Minister, cases of child marriages in some countries are seen as part of a wider economic strategy, which generates income and assets while reducing the costs associated with raising children.

This explains why early marriages are more common among poorer households.

The report, Out of wedlock, into school: combating child marriage through education, cites Kenya as a country where child marriages sometimes increase during periods of crisis, a phenomenon referred to as “drought brides”.

According to the report released to mark the international day of girls this week, those between ages 15 and 19 are twice as likely to die during pregnancy and child birth compared to their older peers.
For girls aged below 15, the likelihood of death is five times greater, the report adds.

Additionally, infants born to mothers aged under 18 are more likely to die in their first year than infants born to mothers aged 19. The babies are also more likely to suffer from low birth weight, malnutrition and impaired cognitive development.

Unable to control their own fertility, the victims of early marriage are less able to space births. “Birth spacing is one of the principal risk factors for maternal and infant mortality,” the report said.

Social barriers

“Schools often have a policy of refusing to allow married or pregnant girls, or girls with babies, back to school,” the report said, adding: “Even when the law allows for a return to education, social attitudes created a barrier to entry.”

The report quotes a 17-year-old Kenyan girl who captured the debilitating effect of stigma: “My classmates in my former school laughed at me when they realised I was pregnant,” she said.

“They even drew cartoons to illustrate my condition on the blackboard just to ridicule me.”

Bullying and abuse by teachers, pupils and other parents can reduce self-confidence, forcing them out of school, the report said.

Uninterrupted, most of the girls in Kenya sit the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exam aged 17 or 18. The exam is set to start this month.