How true is a recent claim that almost two-thirds of girls in Kibera had traded sex for sanitary pads?
On September 15, The Independent published an article by Maya Oppenheim, their Women’s Correspondent, claiming that .
Citing an ‘exclusive report’ by UNICEF, Oppenheim claimed that almost two-thirds of girls in Kibera and 10 per cent of young adolescent girls in Western Kenya had admitted to having transactional sex for pads, particularly with boda-boda riders.
Furthermore, the article claimed that 54 per cent of Kenyan girls reported challenges with accessing menstrual hygiene management products, and 22 per cent of girls of school-going age indicated they had to buy their own sanitary products.
Therefore the question is, do almost two-thirds of girls in Nairobi’s Kibera slum engage in transactional sex for the purpose of acquiring sanitary towels?
PesaCheck has looked into the claim by Maya Oppenheim published in The Independent that 65% of girls in Kibera have engaged in transactional sex in exchange for money to buy sanitary towels and finds it to be FALSE for the following reasons:
published in the Journal of Women’s Health indicated that while the overall prevalence of reported sex for money to purchase sanitary items among sexually active participants was low at 1.3 per cent, this was clustered among girls younger than 15 years.
Only 10 per cent of 15 year-olds, the report adds, were reported to be engaging in transactional sex for sanitary pads, with girls in this age-group and below having significantly higher odds of having transactional sex for pads compared with those over 15 years.
According to a study published in May 2016 by consulting firm , approximately 65 per cent of girls in Kenya cannot afford sanitary pads on a monthly basis, with one pack averaging between Sh50 and Sh100 for a packet of eight.
Ariana Youn, an Advocacy and Partnerships Specialist at UNICEF Kenya who is quoted in the article by Oppenheim, says the reporter ‘misquoted UNICEF’ and the various statistics and research that she cited in the article came from several studies and not exclusively from UNICEF. The two primary reports as shared by UNICEF were on , and .
Youn declined to say whether she or UNICEF had demanded a clarification, correction or retraction from Oppenheim or the Independent newspaper.
estimates that , with showing that Kenyan adolescent girls miss approximately 3.5 learning days per month due to lack of funds to purchase sanitary pads.
There have been concerted efforts by governments, non-governmental organisations, international donors and social enterprises to curb period poverty by providing sanitary pads and menstrual cups, especially in primary and secondary schools.
There is growing political will at the national and county levels to address the menstrual health-related challenges, with the article by the Independent stating that about 90,000 girls in 335 schools now have access to safe and hygienic toilets with menstrual hygiene (MHM) facilities.
The Kenyan government set aside Sh300 million towards the provision of sanitary towels to all needy primary school-going girls. In June 2017, President Uhuru Kenyatta signed the into law, placing the responsibility of providing free, sufficient and quality sanitary towels to every girl child registered and enrolled in a public basic education institution and have reached puberty, on the government.
Kenya’s National Free Sanitary Towel Distribution Programme was initially managed by the Ministry of Education but has since been moved to the Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs. According to Rachel Shebesh, the Chief Administrative Secretary of the ministry, in the financial year 2018/19, The National Treasury allocated Sh460 million toward this programme. However, to provide at least nine packets for each girl, the ministry requires an additional Sh1.04 billion.
The article in The Independent caused concern particularly with community and civil society organisations working with children and teenage girls in Nairobi’s informal settlements, with Kibra MP Kenneth Okoth asking the author and UNICEF Kenya to share the data.
The main concern by Okoth and other organisations was that even though some girls engage in transactional sex or seek out boyfriends to meet their basic needs, the claim that 65 per cent of all teenage girls do this was an exaggeration.
While it is indisputable that teenage girls from low-income areas engage in transactional sex, reports by various stakeholders show that the number is far lower than the 65% claim by The Independent. Additionally, the article does not provide the report itself, or show where they got supporting data, leading us to conclude that it is an exaggeration, and therefore FALSE.
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This report was written by , a communications professional with a passion for development and human rights. She enjoys storytelling through writing, photography and film-making. Wakini is a member of the network of women data journalists.
The report was edited by PesaCheckManaging Editor and copyedited by PesaCheck Project Manager (Editorial and Verification) . The infographics were done by Eunice Magwambo, a Kenyan graphic designer, visual artist and digital content producer.
, co-founded by and, is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of so-called ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ or SDG public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit .
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