Break Free! Kenya SUMMARY
Millions of young people don’t have access to appropriate, gender-responsive, quality SRHR education, information and services. This makes them vulnerable to unintended pregnancies, often followed by child marriage (CM). The Break Free! programme empowers adolescents and young people to make their own free and informed choices to speak out and have control over their SRH and lives. BF! is tackling root causes of gender inequality,  unequal power relations and discriminatory social norms, systems, structures, policies and practices, supported by civil society and improved legislation. The project will be implemented between 2021 and 2025 by the Break Free! Consortium consisting of Plan International Netherlands, SAT and FAWE, technical partners KIT and RMT in collaboration with Netherlands’ Embassies. It will be carried out in Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger and a regional Pan-African component to sustain the country programmes. Although child marriage is illegal in Kenya ( 23%), social norms often dictate that a girl from cannot choose whom she marries and depend on the girl’s socio-economic status and cultural orientation, while the motivation is often the dowry and money.
TP prevalence is 23.3% and 21% of women (15–49) have undergone FGM/C, but much higher in some rural areas, being rites de passage and deeply rooted within culture.
The prevention of CEFMU and Teenage Pregnancies (TP) is more urgent than ever, as COVID-19 situation has dramatically changed the context in which adolescent girls live resulting in increasing levels of GBV, increasing unpaid care work, rising sexual exploitation, decreased access to education and increasing rates of CEFMU and TP. 
This crisis has further isolated and excluded adolescent girls in remote areas from accessing SRHR information and services, especially concerning contraception and other essential SRH services. Lockdown restrictions and enforcement of COVID-19 prevention methods have led to an increase in harmful practices such as CEFMU, reducing the effectiveness of referral pathways for essential services, and resulting in poorer SRH outcomes for girls. The loss of employment and income by parents and caregivers is expected to increase girls’ school dropout and girls’ vulnerability to sexual exploitation, resulting in TP and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), including HIV and has led to increased transactional sex with older men as girls need the money to buy essentials such as sanitary pads, food, data and clothes.  Another contributing factor is poor parenting style where parents do not keep an eye with their young daughters, particularly in Tana River. Empowering adolescents to claim their SRHR rights, supported by civil society, will be achieved if  CSOs, youth-led groups and networks are strengthened to lobby and advocate for improved legislation and to promote social norm change in favour of the prevention of CEFMU/TP. 
Education opportunities and a community supportive of girls’ education will stimulate adolescent girls at risk of TP/CEFMU to access and remain in school, while promoting the re-entrance of girls who have discontinued school due to pregnancy. In order to create a supportive and improved socio-cultural environment that promotes education for girls and SRHR for young people, relevant gate keepers, teachers and parents will be made aware of the importance of adopting attitudes favourable to keeping girls in school. 
Supporting CSOs to organise, participate and communicate enables CSOs to claim better education and SRHR outcomes for girls and young women, and influence decision-making processes. Duty bearers and decision-makers are made aware of and encouraged to take action to fulfil the education needs of girls based on the effective lobby and advocacy of civil society. Decision-makers at local, national, regional and continental level will be sensitized to build linkages between the levels resulting that civil society is able to elevate issues to higher decision-making levels, and vice versa, they can hold lower-level policy makers and duty bearers accountable for implementing decisions taken at higher levels. This will be enabled by establishing participation and accountability mechanisms between decision-makers/duty bearers and civil society with the support of enhanced youth agency. The programme is a.o. based upon the results and findings of the 18+ ECM ( 2014-2015) and YID programme (2015-2020), implemented by Plan in Kenya and 6 other countries, combined with experience of FAWE and SAT’s programmes on this theme. All partners have experience on improving legislation and policies on CEFMU and implementation thereof, through L&A and enhancing adolescent’s skills to claim their SRH rights, quality of SRH education, information and service provision. This resulted a.o. into the development of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Model Law on Eradicating Child Marriage, served as legal framework for national law and policy-makers and was used as civil society (CS) advocacy tool. It resulted as well in strengthened CSOs, youth hubs and girls clubs, which have become promoters of ASRHR. 
Despite the policy and legal frameworks for curbing CM, it is still widespread. As the penalty of the Maslaha traditional court (prohibited but still often used) in TP cases is to marry or pay off, 
the consequence of TP is that often the girls do not return to school after delivery, despite the government’s return to school policy.
Civic space for CSOs to participate in political decision-making in Kenya has not shrunk, but they often work in silos and compete for funding. It is certainly still possible to advocate against TP, CM, FGM/C and for SRHR, but insufficient coordination among CSOs. There is considerable engagement between government and CSOs. But government and religious leaders and groups at times show hostility to CSOs around CSE and on other matters relating to SRHR and adolescents and CSE faced a massive push back from government, religious leaders and even parents.