Primary schools in Ganze sub-county, Kilifi, and Kinango sub-county, Kwale, experience low pupil enrolment because of poverty, drought, hunger, and gender-based violence, among other factors.
A report launched on Wednesday by Haki Yetu Organization shows that children in these arid and semi-arid areas drop out of school at a high rate.
The report, 'Silent Suffering, Lost Futures', also links the rampant cases of gender-based violence to the low enrolment and high dropout cases.
“We have found out that children cannot stay in school because they do not have any incentive or push to remain in school,” Haki Yetu access to justice officer and lawyer Triza Gacheru said.
She said poor infrastructure, lack of feeding programmes and poverty do not support the retention of children in school.
“There is no water in some of the schools and children go for up to three days without any drinking water,” Gacheru said.
Some schools lack national and county government support, thus giving pupils no joy to stay on.
“Some pupils have to walk for about 40km to get to school, where they will stay thirsty and hungry the whole day. Sometimes they just give up going to school altogether and find means of getting food and water. That is when defilement cases creep in,” Gacheru said.
In Bamba, Ganze sub-county, Muungano Primary School had an average enrolment of 166 pupils over the last five years.
“At Mirihini primary, despite the rather good enrolment, the head teacher indicated that almost half of the pupils are not in school at any one time due to a myriad of problems encountered by their parents or guardians,” the report reads.
The Kilifi County Integrated Development Plan 2018-2022 put the total population of children under 14 years at 370,706 in 2018 and projected the number to rise to 419,645 in 2022, a growth rate of 13.5 per cent.
However, the anticipated increase did not reflect in the three schools under study including Muungano, Mirihini and Katendewa.
“It is worth noting that, except at Mirihini primary where the number of boys is marginally higher than that of girls, the overall enrolment of girls in these schools over the last five years has been higher than that of boys,” the report says.
“Respondents attributed this trend to the rising number of boys dropping out of school to join the boda boda industry and other menial jobs to support their parents.”
This, Gacheru said, could also be an indication of progress made through campaigns and efforts to promote girl child education.
According to the Kilifi CIDP 2018-2022, the transition rate from pre-primary school to the next level was 45 per cent, implying that an estimated 55 per cent of pupils do not proceed to primary school level.
The report indicates that the requirement of birth certificates in the enrolment of pupils in primary school also affects the numbers since majority of the children do not have the document.
“Many children are joining Grade 1 when aged eight or nine years and often feel uncomfortable learning with others who are five years old,” the report reads.
Also, many parents, especially the men, travel to towns like Mariakani and Mombasa in search of work but do not return when they get the jobs and instead abandon their wives and children who cannot take care of themselves.
“Irresponsible parenting in turn leads to children dropping out of school and girls lured into early marriages to meet their basic needs of survival,” the report says.
Rampant cases of GBV and difficulty in accessing justice have also led to rampant school dropout, with some defiled minors forced into marriage by their irresponsible parents.
Bamba police station, for instance, has 126 cases of defilement of minors. Out of these, 24 perpetrators are still at large, according to Gacheru.
“Of the 126 cases, only 86 are in court,” Gacheru said.
The cases are supposed to be heard in Kilifi town. From Bamba police station to Kilifi law courts is a distance of about 80km.
“The farthest village from Bamba police station is about 99km away from Kilifi law courts. So, for this child to go to a health facility, which is 20km away, then to Bamba police station and then later to Kilifi law courts, they will have travelled a distance of about 200km,” Gacheru said.
Justice becomes elusive.
The same applies to Kwale county. Kwale resident magistrate Ruth Ogola said GBV cases are too rampant.
Since 2016 to date, there are over 600 GBV cases in the Kwale law courts, handled by only three judges.
Ogola said most of the cases involve defilement of minors, between one-and-a-half-years and 17 years, by relatives and neighbours.
“The cases also involve defilement of boys,” she said.
Kwale is vast and the area of jurisdiction is too huge, according to Ogola, who is also the deputy registrar of the Environmental and Land Court and High Court in Kwale.
This means victims and witnesses have to travel long distances to attend court sessions.
“When they get to court, which sometimes they walk to, they are so tired and hungry and cannot even express themselves well. You find that you may not give the best judgment because of the prevailing circumstances and this denies them justice. But our hands are tied because we have to follow the law,” Ogola said.
She called on civil society to offer support in such cases by providing transport and food to the victims and witnesses so they can have energy to express themselves well.
“Sometimes we have had to buy food for the victims and witnesses from our own pockets just to energise them,” Ogola said.
She said mobile courts will help reduce the travel distance.
The resident magistrate said victims and witnesses need to be trained on how to express themselves because this will determine whether justice is served or not.
“Sometimes you can see the victims have trauma, so much so that they cannot express themselves. This also happens to the accused, who may not be able to express themselves well and get jailed while being innocent,” Ogola said.
She said a court in Kinango would help address the problem to some extent. Right now, all the cases are heard in Kwale.
The Kwale county government has offered the Judiciary a piece of land in Kinango to build a law court.
The process of titling is ongoing.
