BRAVING the cold, the women, men and children in jubilant mood crowd the humble homestead in a remote village in Western Province. 

News has just reached the usually quiet village that one of their daughters, *Nelly, has emerged top in the form four national examinations.

Nelly is overwhelmed by tears of joy. Her dream to become a doctor is finally taking shape. The jubilant villagers are not waiting for graduation day somewhere in the future, her new name is ‘Daktari’ and they are ecstatic.

That was three years ago.  Nelly is now a mother of a nine month old baby, her dream of becoming a doctor long forgotten ever since she dropped out of university after she became pregnant in the second year. 

Today she sells groceries at a stall in the sprawling Kibera slum, one of the largest slums in Kenya and probably the whole of Africa . She is caught up in the daily struggle to put food on the table for her baby and four younger siblings. 

Everyday is the same; a desperate attempt against starvation and displacement and she augments her income by doing the laundry in the affluent homes surrounding Kibera. 

Unfortunately, Nelly’s case is replicated annually among hundreds of girls admitted to the university each year, who defer or drop out of school indefinitely after they become pregnant. 

With motherhood comes responsibility and priorities that many of these young women find difficult to juggle alongside their studies. 

Alice Ngechu, a student at the Nairobi University and a mother of a three-month old baby says: 

“Once you give birth you have to look for residence outside campus,” she adds,  “It is expensive and frustrating since you keep running back to the house in between classes to mind the baby.” 

A university degree is still highly esteemed in Kenya and available to only a privileged few due to limited space and the prohibitive costs. However, it becomes especially perilous for female students who find themselves saddled with a pregnancy or a baby. 

According to the Kenya Higher Education Profile, until the early 1970’s,university education in Kenya was free and the government would bear all costs but during the 1990/1991 academic year, the government introduced a cost-sharing scheme which required the students to pay between US $80 and US $107 US annually per student.  The total charges were raised to US $667. 

Even though the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) whose history dates back to 1952 has continued to offer financial support to all government sponsored students, the cost of living at public universities is on the increase.

Blinded by their need for money, female students throw caution to the wind and before they come back to their senses they realize that they have already become pregnant. 

Life at the university can become extremely desperate especially towards the end of the semester when most students, low on funds,  go without food when they need it the most due to the pressure of the end of semester exams. 

“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” says Maddy Muigai, a student at Maseno University in Western Kenya, “Why should I sleep hungry when all I need to do is endure several hours with a man?’’ 

A student from Nairobi University further added that there are some rooms in the female hostel where all that is required by a male student is to slip in their student identification card and some money under the door in exchange for sex. 

Asked what purpose the student identification card served, a female source said that it supposed to be “a sign of good faith” in the transaction. 

As more and more girls become pregnant each year, it’s clear that they are also risking their own lives. They are obviously having unprotected sex, which is likely to make them vulnerable to HIV infection. 

In the recent past, panic reigned in Moi University as a female student reportedly alleged to have infected about 118 male student with HIV . 

The apparent scenario is an issue of concern because it puts all efforts to promote the girl child up the academic ladder down the drain. 

Affirmative action to promote girl child 

According to the Kenya Higher Education Profile, “gender and regional imbalance have shaped and continue to shape the development of higher education in Kenya.’’ 

The profile further revealed that the proportion of girls enrolled continues to decline as they move up the educational ladder with female students accounting for only about 30 percent of total enrolment in public university.

Affirmative Action (AA) has been a noble undertaking in ensuring that the girl child has a competitive edge against the boy counterpart who faces fewer obstacles in his pursuit for better education. 

The AA policy has seen entry points required to be admitted in the university’s regular programme lowered for girls. 

According to the Education in Kenya - Wikipedia,  the free internet encyclopedia , an estimated 85 percent of all children in Kenya attend primary school, 24 percent of these children attend secondary school and only 2 percent of them finally attend higher institutions . 

However , even  after being among the fortunate 2 percent, a good number of girls only have their admission letter and perhaps a first year’s transcript to show for it, having fallen victim to the perils of life at the universities . 

Other initiatives have been undertaken to ensure not only the girl child access education; but also stays in school to complete it. One such initiative is the provision of free sanitary towels to primary school girls. 

All these initiatives have been in place to improve a girl’s performance in school. Once she joins the university, the society assumes she has succeeded .But this is normally the beginning of either her tribulations or joy. 

“One of the main problems facing students in the university of Nairobi as in other universities in Kenya is food,’’ said Doctor Sobbie Mulindi, a senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi. 

“Female students have more basic needs than the male students,” he said. 

“Therefore, the pressure to get through each day leaves the female student vulnerable to manipulation and sexual harassment.” 

Dr Mulindi said a study carried out by Professor Ngugi revealed that some university of Nairobi students were working as prostitutes on Koinange streets as means of eking a living. 

“It is a shame for a girl to reach university and get into prostitution,’’ he added. 

Public universities are much harder hit than the private universities, which Dr Mulindi attributes to private universities’s proper follow up systems and effective structures such as counselling, mentoring, and more involved tutoring. 

It is particularly disheartening for parents and guardians who have invested heavily to enable their daughters access university education. 

As she soothes her crying baby, what the future holds for Nelly and many other young women in her situation is anyone’s guess. 

It is hoped that the KSh 2 billion  women's development  fund set aside by the government will reach the girl child in the university. Hopefully female legislators and ordinary Kenyans will set up programs to ensure that the girl child rises above the challenges in the higher institutions of learning. Otherwise the current situation leaves much to be desired.

*names changed 

AN AWC FEATURE