Something strange is happening in Nairobi’s Eastland area – girls who have sat their Kenyans Certificate of Secondary Educations (KCSE) exams are on a hunt for financially stable men.
Most of the girls who hail from Kayole, Dandora and Soweto estates are said to have developed a penchant for rich and stable men in neighbouring estates.
The girls are no longer interested in broke high school boys with whom they spent four years as classmates – and who to them do not add value to their lives
The girls – who often walk in groups of three or four – often take well targeted walks in rich estates like Komarocks, Greenspan, Nasra and Jacaranda where people with means are believed to live.
“I can tell you that twenty minutes hardly passes without seeing young girls clad in tight mini skirts and tops walking across the estate. As a caretaker I can tell that these are not girls from around here,” Paul Kimani, a caretaker in Komarock area told Mwanahabari.co.ke.
According to Paul, the girls only target well dressed men who drive cars.
Waiting to be hit on
June Adhiambo who is a mother of three said she has met many girls just wandering in the estate, waiting to be hit on by hotblooded men.
“The other day I heard two young girls discussing how our estate has many cars and rich men, yet their estate (Kayole) is dry and infested with broke men,” said Adhiambo.
Adhiambo said that the girls were awestruck – and kept admiring cars and sweet-smelling men.
“They were trying too hard to attract men’s attention. As a woman, I can tell when a lady is yearning for a man’s attention. Their dressing, painted nails, powered faces and lips tells it all. These are girls on a mission. I fear for our young men, mostly married men,” she added.
Young girls have become women
John Wasonga, a parent in Kayole told Mwanahabari that young girls in the estate have become women – most of them are breadwinners in their families especially due to Covid-19 pandemic that has decimated jobs.
“Most of them come from very poor families, which is why they target rich men around their estates as a ladder out of poverty,” he told Mwanahabari.
Sources have indicated that most young men in the rich neighbourhoods have not shied away from the invitation.
“I am a young man and still on campus, but I get a lot of propositions from girls. Some of them send emissaries through friends. I guess I am a target because I drive my old man’s car occasionally. They probably think it’s mine,” Andrew, a student at Nairobi University said.
According to Andrew, she knows a few young girls who have become pregnant just after clearing Form 4 – and most of them get read of their pregnancies through very unsafe means.
Hunting games
Tina who completed her Form 4 in 2020 said she was introduced to the ‘hunting’ game by other girls. She said they lived well, and always had money.
“I want money. It is not easy for your parents to support you after school, so some of us want to be independent. I cannot ask my mother for everything. There are things I just get on my own nowadays,” Tina told Mwanahabari.
Kenya experienced a significant rise in teen pregnancies during the Covid-19 pandemic. Over a three month period of the lockdown in 2o20, there was a 40 per cent rise in the number of teen pregnancies in Kenya, with 152,000 pregnancies reported.
One significant cause of the rise of teen pregnancy in Kenya is poverty and the lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services.
Not in school
In Kenya adolescent girls make up 45 percent of severe abortion complication cases. It is especially dangerous given that pregnant mothers face the threat of coronavirus and the country struggles with the pandemic.
According to a publication by Reuters, 98 percent of pregnant teenagers are not in school, and most never return after giving birth.