Headteachers and local residents in Masara, Migori county, have raised serious concerns over the overwhelming rate at which schoolgirls are turning to prostitution.
Masara Secondary School has been adversely affected by the new trend in which approximately 50 per cent of girls drop out of school between Form 1 and Form 4.
The school principal, Daniel Aloka confessed that all their attempts to save the young girls have been unsuccessful.
"Any time schools re-open after any given holiday we lose at least 10 girls to pregnancies and early marriages," Aloka disclosed to The Standard.
Masara town looks quite normal during the day, with the one-street market centre seemingly normal, however, it comes alive at night.
The streets are reportedly abuzz with the underage girls, some as young as 12, filling up the over 25-night clubs on a 200-metre road stretch.
Child prostitution is allegedly rampant with reporters stating that the underage semi-nude schoolgirls are trading their bodies on the streets and down dark alleys.
Local leaders and school principals have linked the new trend to money derived from the local gold mines which have lured many to the vice.
On their end, the young girls claimed to have been forced into the flesh trade due to abject poverty back at home.
Out of 15 schoolgirls interviewed by The Standard, 12 confessed to being deeply invested in selling their body at Masara town.
"I regret what I do, but I do not have any other option," one of the girls (a Form 1 student) divulged, adding that she had already undergone two abortions prior to giving birth to her son.
Her story is replicated all across the neighbouring schools both primary and secondary, where girls tell tales of how they were lured into the trade for quick cash.
"It started with some gold miner giving me Ksh 1,000 on my way from school, then he invited me to a night club and the rest is history," one of the girls confessed.
