Abstract:
Early marriage is a formal marriage or informal union before the age of 18years (UNICEF, 2012).
This an outdated cultural practice among various communities in Kenya that has affected girl-child attendance in school hence more boys have accessed to education than girls. This has created gender gap in the economic development of our country. Despite the many health and social consequences, the practice continues unabated. This formed a focus of study in Narok County, Narok North sub-county. The study therefore examined the effects of this practice on school participation of the girl-child from their needs point of view which has argued for a need for policy to set agenda for interventions. Secondary data was collected from County Education Office, Teachers Service Commission and Narok County Bureau of Statistics office. Descriptive statistics was used in data presentation. Logistic regression models were used to analyze the data as Ms Excel, R and SPSS are the statistical packages that were used. From the study I found out that early marriage affects school dropout. Also age in the sense that older girls are more likely to drop out of school than younger girls when married and economic status (wealth) affects as locality does not.
