This archive report was first published on 11 June 2020.
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to spread, school closures have left 1.54 billion children and youth, including four million adolescent girls in Kenya, at home. This has led to a surge in sexual exploitation and violence against adolescent girls, who are already vulnerable to risks such as early marriage, teenage pregnancy, and HIV infection.
According to UNESCO, 90% of countries have closed learning institutions to avoid the spread of the pandemic. In Kenya, 32% of young women suffer sexual violence before they turn 18, and the country's teenage pregnancy rate is the third-highest in the world, with one in five girls aged 15-19 pregnant or having given birth.
Adolescent girls in Kenya are also at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM), with a 21% prevalence rate. The prevalence of HIV among girls aged 15-19 is four times that in boys of the same age, due to the numerous and often layered vulnerabilities that they encounter.
With schools closed, adolescent girls are no longer able to access essential services such as reproductive health care, provision of sanitary towels, and medication. They are also at risk of being married off by their families to stave off hunger and homelessness.
As a result, critical attention is required in approaches targeting adolescent girls. Ensuring their needs are not overlooked and that they return to school when they reopen is as important as creating awareness on hygiene and prevention of Covid-19.
Ms. Mwabe, a gender adviser at the Ministry of Devolution, notes that the closure of schools has placed adolescent girls in peril, and that health resources are being channelled to the pandemic, causing a drastic influence in other health outcomes, including safe pregnancies and childbirth.
