Kibra Member of Parliament Ken Okoth shames United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) following fake publiction of statistics on ‘period poverty’ among girls in Kibera.
Through his social media account , Okoth wrote,”You don’t have to bismirch our community to help Kibera girls,”
Fact-checking organization Africa Check released a report declaring that there was no research to support UK newspaper Independent and Unicef’s claim that ‘65% of Kibera females trade sex for sanitary pads’.
The Independent cited ‘new exclusive research’ from UNICEF when in fact, no such data existed.
In a September 2018 article, the paper claimed that seven in 10 females in Nairobi’s Kibera slum have traded sex for sanitary pads.
Two reports UNICEF cited when contacted were done in Western Kenya, with one featuring no mention of sanitary pads in exchange for sex at all.
A UNICEF official promised to provide a third report to support their figures but had not done so by the time of going to press.
Dr Stella Chebii,a gender and communication expert who has done research on period poverty in Kibera stated that the ’65 percent’ figure was too high, explaining that it was much more likely that many girls had sex in exchange for money that ends up being used to buy, among other things, sanitary pads.
“There is a possibility that girls could receive money in exchange for sex which ends being used to buy items that include sanitary towels, but the motive to exchange money for sex in most cases is not motivated by the lack of sanitary towels,” the Moi University lecturer toldAfrica Check
According to Africa Check report,” Africa Check contacted Unicef for the source of the 65% figure and were told it came from “several studies”.
Ariana Youn, who focuses on advocacy for the UN agency, shared links to two “primary reports”, adding that a third would be provided. (Note: Africa Check followed up repeatedly on this. We will update this report should we get it.)
But the two studies focused on western Kenya, not Kibera. And Unicef did not have any role in either of them, a public health epidemiologist at the who was involved in their research, told Africa Check.
One of the studies found that one in 10, or 10%, of 15-year-old girls admitted to having transactional sex to get money for pads, Phillips-Howard said. But of the 3,418 women aged 13 to 29 surveyed overall, only 1.3% said they had done this.
(Note: The Independent later added the 10% figure to its story: “Unicef found 10% of young adolescent girls admitted to having transactional sex for pads in western Kenya.” The original article can be found here. Africa Check has contacted the author about the changes but we are yet to get a response.)
The other studies looked at how menstrual hygiene affected the school attendance and reproductive health of 644 girls aged 14 to 16 in western Kenya. It did not mention sex for sanitary pads at all.”
Do you think it was write for Unicef was right to give those reports?
