The unequal burden: Toll of climate change on education of Kenyan girls
A girl pushes jerrycans in a wheelbarrow in search of water in Archers Post, Samburu County. The region was hit by drought.
What you need to know:
- Marriage potential makes girls a sort of ‘life insurance’ for families that have lost their livestock to drought or floods.
- The education of sons is given priority over that of daughters, with girls more likely to take on the burden of household work.
In April last year, classrooms at Asa Primary School in eastern Kenya fell silent as the worst drought to hit the region in four decades forced children to stay home. When the October rains came, the lively chatter of children was restored, but with a marked difference – this time, there were hardly any girls.
When the drought was at its worst, “everyone was in survival mode,” said Roba Racha, a local government official. “The devastation caused by the drought in the area forced many children to leave school.”
After the worst was over, the boys began to return. But many of the girls never came back, said Racha, whose county (Tana River) southeast of Nairobi, near the Somali border, is home to pastoralist communities that depend on grazing for their livelihoods.
“You could walk into the classroom and find only boys,” Racha said.
As the drought took its toll, school numbers more than halved. One head teacher in the area said his school had classes without a single girl. It is a story repeated in many parts of Kenya, with girls much more likely than boys to have to drop out of school to help struggling parents when natural disasters like droughts or floods hit. And the changing climate is making those a more frequent occurrence.
In recent years, Kenya has been hit first by severe drought that left millions hungry and destroyed the livelihoods of pastoralist communities, then by large-scale flooding that displaced thousands and washed crops away.
Experts in the region say girls' education is often the first thing families sacrifice when faced with the effects of climate change.
In a drought, some girls take on the back-breaking task of fetching water over ever-longer distances, while others take care of things at home as their parents seek pasture for their herds.
Some are married off as children to bring income in the form of a bride price and reduce the number of mouths the family has to feed.
Their marriage potential makes girls a sort of “life insurance” for pastoralist families that have lost their livestock to drought or floods, said Jedidah Lemaron, who runs a foundation that supports girls in southern Kenya’s arid Kajiado region, home to the Maasai pastoralist community.
“The education of sons is given priority over that of daughters,” she added, with girls more likely to take on the burden of household work during periods of additional stress following a drought or a flood.
Kajiado resident Susan Nakimoru was married in 2022 aged 16 after her father lost his animals to drought. Her parents told her that if she got married, she would save her family and allow her brothers the opportunity to do the same - without animals to give away to a bride’s family, they would be unable to wed.
“I was not ready to get married, but my father insisted,” said Susan, fiddling nervously with the traditional Maasai yellow shawl she wore draped over her shoulder.
Research published last year by the Education Development Trust in six pastoralist regions in Kenya prone to both drought and flooding found that climate shocks typically result in increased responsibilities for girls compared to boys, leaving most of them out of class.
The research, based on interviews with local principals and community members, found that with each cycle of climate shocks, girls were more likely to miss school and lose learning time.
It’s not just a Kenya problem. Climate-related events prevented at least four million girls in low- and lower-middle-income countries from completing their education in 2021, according to a report from the Malala Fund, an education advocacy group.
If current trends continue, by 2025, climate change will contribute to at least 12.5 million girls being prevented from completing their education each year, it said.
In 2022, 15 million children in the Horn of Africa were out of school because of the drought and another 3.3 million children were at risk of dropping out, according to Unicef estimates.
Angela Nguku, executive director of White Ribbon Alliance Kenya, a local NGO that advocates girls’ rights, warned that the substitution of unpaid care work for education is hurting the future of these girls.
“In both extremes of climate change, girls are pulled out of school to take on the role of caregivers at home. It is a never-ending cycle at the expense of their education,” she said.
Research published in 2020 by another non-profit, the International Centre for Research on Women, found that giving families cash or other support in the form of uniforms or school supplies as long as their girls attended school boosted educational outcomes.
Meanwhile, Kenya’s Education ministry is building more boarding facilities in drought-prone areas to allow children to stay in school when their parents have to move to feed their livestock. The culture around girls’ education, however, may be harder to build.
Last year, Mary Enkaroi, 16, had to drop out of her school in Kajiado to help look after her younger siblings when her father left the family to seek pasture for their animals further afield. She never went back.
“There was no rain in our community. We had to walk more than five hours every day to fetch water while my father went to Tanzania to find pasture for the animals,” she said, as she walked home carrying a 20-litre bucket filled with water, taking its heavy weight on her head.
“In school, I loved science and wanted to be a nurse, but I now don't know what my future will be.”
This story is published in partnership with The Fuller Project.
