How climate change is forcing more Kenyan girls into early marriage

Principal Joseph Edukon takes a look at the chart on the wall opposite his desk and frowns.

It shows the number of pupils currently enrolled at the Kakuma Primary and Junior School in northern Kenya – over 1,100 boys and some 900 girls.

Edukon would like to keep it that way.

The Turkana region, where the public school is located, has been gripped by months of drought, like other semi-desert regions of northern Kenya.

This does not only affect local farmers and nomadic herders, but Edukon’s pupils too.

It recently started to rain, but it is not yet clear if it will be enough to sustain local herds, as all too often, the water has quickly dried up, leaving the grass to wither.

But it is not only the livelihood of local farmers and nomadic herders that is threatened when goats and sheep die due to lack of food and water – it also puts the future of children, and girls in particular, in jeopardy.

Their schooling often ends early during prolonged periods of drought because their families need them to search for water and firewood at ever-greater distances and their parents can no longer send them to school.

Young girls, not only in the Turkana region but also among other pastoralist communities, are also at major risk of being forced into marriage to ease the burden on their families.

“Right now, many parents have moved to faraway areas with their livestock to find food for their animals,” says Edukon.

When the school closes for a month of holidays in April, that poses a particular challenge for those pupils who normally stay at the school year-round.

If they don’t have any relatives remaining in town, it is up to the school to make sure they don’t end up on the street, the principal says.

“It is not an easy task, especially given budget cuts. But so far, we didn’t have to send a single child out to the streets,” Edukon adds.

Free meals help keep kids in school

The free meals given to pupils are a major incentive for many parents to keep their kids in school even in difficult times, as that means one less hungry mouth to feed.

Kakuma Primary and Junior School distributes 2,300 meals every day, not just to its pupils but to hundreds of children living on the street.

For them, the soupy porridge is the only reliable meal they can count on every day.

And the stakes are rising. A UN report highlights that the African continent faces growing threats to health and food security from rising temperatures and extreme weather.

The 2024 World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report warns that extreme climate events such as droughts are increasingly endangering agriculture, water, energy, education and livelihoods in the region.

200 goats for a bride

For girls, the school tries to be a safe haven that protects them from forced marriage.

“We need to be a rescue school in such situations. When we get signals from either the parents or the girls that they might be married off, we make sure to keep them in the school, even after the end of the school year,” Principal Edukon says.

When a herd is decimated due to drought, many families opt to marry off their 14- to 16-year-old daughters to escape their economic woes.

The bride price is usually about 200 goats – and the family saves on school fees, as only eight years of primary school are free in Kenya.

“Families under extreme pressure often resort to early marriage as a coping mechanism, hoping that marriage will offer their daughters protection or alleviate economic pressure,” says Rahinatu Adamu Hassaini, an expert on gender-based violence at the child protection organization Save the Children.

“In some pastoralist communities in Kenya, for example, marriage has become a survival strategy – particularly where climate shocks have decimated livestock and income,” she says, confirming the headmaster’s account.

12 million girls forced to marry at young age

Child marriage is a serious human rights violation that disproportionately impacts adolescent girls, Hassaini says.

“It denies them their rights to education, health and protection. Child marriage is a direct form of gender-based violence and a predictor of future forms of violence.”

Globally, around 640 million girls and women were married before their 18th birthday.

Each year, 12 million girls are married young – roughly one girl every two to three seconds – according to Save the Children.

With four in 10 child marriages, sub-Saharan Africa is the hardest-hit region worldwide.

Many families have lost their livestock – their main source of income, food and social security. As a result, more and more young girls are being married off, some as young as 12 to 14.

Parents see marriage as a way to secure a dowry to feed the family and as a source of perceived protection for girls in highly insecure environments.

Community workers report that school attendance by girls has dropped significantly as families prioritize survival over education.

Hassaini says that early marriage can lead to early pregnancy, health risks, a lifelong vulnerability to gender-based violence as well as the loss of education. “This creates a dangerous cycle.”