For many women, conceiving and carrying a baby to term is not only a blessing but also cause for celebration. Indeed, some women have been known to go to great lengths to become mothers. But for some, a baby is the worst thing that could happen to them.
These are girls in the prime of their youth, whose hunger for education far outweighs any dreams of motherhood. That notwithstanding, many girls in universities and colleges across Kenya are finding themselves in the family way.
According to Jacklyne Okello, the Registrar at Marist University College, the problem of student mothers has grown to disturbing proportions. “Many girls are falling pregnant in the course of their studies and disrupting their lives. Some even fail to finish school and others are forced to re-sit exams or go away with incomplete transcripts,” says Jacklyne.
Jane Kibera, 21, is the mother of a one-year-old girl and a fourth year student at Africa Nazarene University. She was 19 when she met and fell in love with the father of her child, also a student.
“I didn’t know I was pregnant until three months later. It was after I fainted that the school nurse confirmed my worst fears. Accepting that was the hardest thing I have ever had to do,” she says.
The pregnancy forced her to drop out of school, returning only after the baby was born. And then she had to deal with the stigma from other students, friends and neighbours.
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