Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Underage Girls in Sex Work in Kenya.
Abstract
This research seeks to address access to sexual and reproductive health and rights of
underage girls in sex work in Kenya.
The study evaluates the status of girl’s involvement in sex work and the extent to which
they access SRHR services. The study focuses on under girls in the urban informal habitats. It
also examines the extent to which the current legislations and policies address SRHR
challenges faced by this cohort. Statistics indicate that a significant population of underage
girls are involved in transactional sex. The categories of underage and gender emerge as key
determinants of inaccessibility and low quality of sexual reproductive health services among
underage sex workers. This is in spite of the significant number of organizations offering these
services. This disparity reveals that there is a significant relationship between the
inaccessibility and low quality of sexual reproductive health services for underage sex workers
and high prevalence of adolescent and teenage pregnancies in Kenya. It is also justifies the
claim of a strong correlation between sexually transmitted infections (STIs), increased
incidences of unsafe abortions among underage girls and structural unresponsiveness of sexual
and reproductive health rights programs in Kenya.
This study utilized two complimentary theories; the feminist theory and
intersectionality theory. The feminist theory adds a female perspective to how gender-based
structural discrimination impacts on the fundamental rights of under-age girls. The
intersectionality theory helped in examining how the vulnerability of underage girls in sex
work is also an outcome of the interplay between gender and other variables. The study uses
desk review to collect data from secondary sources.
This study found out that underage girls’ involvement in sex work is on the rise. The
age of entry into sex work for girls is as low as ten years. Holmstrom et al. (2019), argues that
most people's first experience of selling sex happens during their teens. This is indicative of
an institutional failure beginning from the African culture and extending to national laws and
international law and policy frameworks. This study notes that poverty, child-headed families,
illiteracy, unemployment, drug and substance abuse, and dysfunctional families are factors that
predispose underage girls to engage in sex as work. The study further established that the
existence of elaborate international, regional and national legislations and policies on SRHR
have not guaranteed access to SRHR services for underage girls in sex work. This research
recommends the harmonization of SRHR laws and the related policies with the existing
operational programs. The designing of policy and legal framework should further give
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primacy to serving the interest of girl children. It should also address the drivers pushing
underage girls to sex work. Finally, there is a need for a collaborative approach by all duty
bearers to ensure that these girls have access to adequate information about SRHR services.
Publisher
University of nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
- Faculty of Arts [710]
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