More than 3.5 million learners might fail to report back to school for the first term in January as the drought menace continues to wreak havoc in the country.
According to the Save the Children report conducted by the Global Out of School Children Initiative in 2021, the number of children aged between four and 17 years out of school stands at two million.
The number is feared to go up as schools reopen with an additional 1.6 million children who are estimated to be at high risk of dropping out as the hunger crisis worsens.
A recent survey done by Save the Children conducted in June 2022 on the impact of the drought in 17 counties found a significant decrease in enrolment in all the counties with an average of 52 per cent affected schools across all levels of early childhood education, primary and secondary.
According to the data, Mandera, Garissa, Wajir, Turkana and Marsabit are amongst the worst affected counties with Mandera having the highest number of school dropouts of 295,470 children aged between 4-17.
Garissa follows with 289,410, Wajir at 266,540, Turkana at 253,640 then Marsabit at 107,600 dropouts.
Other counties also greatly affected are Narok with 83,020, West Pokot with 80,070 and Samburu with 64,818 school dropouts.
“Kenya is experiencing one of the worst droughts in 40 years. Children are the most vulnerable groups and are usually the most affected in such emergencies,” Save the Children Kenya and Madagascar country director Yvonne Arunga said.
“Parents have to migrate with their children in search of food, pasture and water for their livestock. This compromises their access to basic facilities such as food, clean water, healthcare and education."
Northern Kenya is majorly a pastoralist community and right now, parents are unable to pay school fees because they have lost their sources of livelihood.
Communities are majorly focused on basic survival skills and school-going children have to help their parents take care of livestock and carry out domestic chores.
Save the Children is now calling on the government to ensure there is an adequate supply of safe water to schools during the drought for purposes of drinking, sanitation and personal hygiene in order to enhance a conducive school environment that will encourage children to stay in school.
