AN EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS OF THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY MARRIAGE AMONG PUPILS ON LEARNER RETENTION PRIMARY SCHOOL EDUCATION IN KENYA, A CASE OF TURKANA COUNTY

The Dakar Conference of 2000 evaluated development in attaining Universal Primary Education (UPE) within the continent of African. An EFA target was established that is eradicating gender inequality in primary schools within the year 2005 and by 2015 be able to attain gender impartiality.Despite all efforts by governments, retention of pupils in primary schools is a major challenge to most governments in the world and in sub-Saharan Africa in particular. Among other social –cultural factors, early marriage among primary school going learners have had a negative impact on the Free Primary Education policy since its re-introduction in 2003 in Kenya. The country faces 23% early marriage among girls and might be a contributor factor in low learner retention in the country especially in Turkana County which has so far had the lowest retention in the county with 7.8% compared to 79.6% nationally. The purpose of this study was to have an exploratory factor analysis to understand why this situation has been experienced within the FPE policy in Kenya. The findings establishedthat girls are married early by young and old men who can afford paying dowry, payment of dowry has driven many girls to early marriage, and majority of early marriages are done according to the traditions of the community. It concluded that early marriage is predominant among the pastoralist communities in ASAL regions in Kenya and has had tremendous influence on learner retention in primary school education contributing negatively to the implementation and success of FPE policy.