Early pregnancies have been identified as a major challenge hindering girls from accessing decent employment opportunities.
According to data from the Ministry of Health, between June 2016 and July 2017, an estimated 378,497 adolescent girls dropped out of school due to pregnancy.
Specifically, 28,932 girls aged 10-14 and 349,465 girls aged 15-19 became pregnant.
The data is contained in a report titled Addressing Gender Based Violence and Economic Exclusion of Girls and Young Women in Kenya.
Nancy Akinyi, 22, a young mother from Kisumu told the Star she would sometimes get half pay or no pay at all for tending to her child while working.
Akinyi recalls she got pregnant and gave birth when she was 13-years-old, a year away from sitting her KCPE.
"After I gave birth it became difficult living at home with my child because I had to depend on others to fend for us and they were not always willing," she said.
"I decided to leave home and go to Kisumu town to look for the father of my child because I thought he would help us."
This was not to be the case as Akinyi soon realised that the almost 30-year-old bodaboda rider was a violent alcoholic.
"He would get violent after drinking and was not always willing to help my daughter and so I decided to go look for a job," she said.
Akinyi was 17 years old when she got married to him and says that she stayed in the marriage for two years.
"It was not that easy because I did not have papers that would enable me get good work."
While still married, she secured a job at a food kiosk earning a daily pay of Sh200.
"Since I had to go to work with my daughter, she would play around the food kiosk as I worked," she said.
Akinyi says that her employer would pay her Sh100 or Sh50 if she got late to work or decline to completely pay her if she took her child to hospital for check up.
Hindrance to employment
Another report reveals that lack of access to education due to pregnancy means that girls will continue to face marginalisation in future employment opportunities.
The report titled Addressing Gender- Based Violence and Economic exclusion of Girls and Young Women in Kenya, was released by Girls Alliance Advocacy earlier this month.
It states that a majority of firms in the private sector lacked socio-economic policies and practices for the empowerment of young women and girls.
"Current policy practices are fashioned to address equality for women in the professional arena, which, by large excludes and marginalises adolescent girls and young women," reads the report.
Some of the other challenges facing young women and girls’ access to decent employment opportunities are poverty, early marriage, and lack of access to business finance.
"Mostly, young women and girls feel discriminated against for lack of adequate education and skills," reads the report.
Back to School
At 19, Akinyi decided to leave her husband and go back to her grandmother.
"I decided to go back and apologise for any wrong doing because I saw it was better living at home than with my husband," she states.
Akinyi later enrolled back at school and sat the Kenya Certificate of Secondary education last year.
"I scored a C minus and I am currently enrolling for college where I want to study nursing," she said.
The report warned that young girls would keep facing challenges if proper tools were not put in place to address economic inclusion and gender violence at work.
It recommended the prioritising of economic exclusion of young girls and women in the political and development agenda at both the county and national levels.
