Girls who got free sanitary products at school were pushed to desperate measures in what is being called a shadow pandemic. Thousands of girls in Kenya will not be going back to school when classes start again in January, because they became pregnant during the Covid lockdown. The African Institute for Development Policy puts the number of teenage girls who became pregnant in the country between January and May at more than ,, with Nairobi recording nearly 12, pregnancies. Anecdotal evidence from healthcare workers across the Kenyan capital suggest the true figures could be higher, as many pregnant teenagers are not coming to clinics. Parents were unable to provide basic hygiene requirements such as clean water, soap and sanitary pads after schools in Kenya closed in March, says Mercy Chege, programme director at Plan International Kenya, and there were cases of young women being preyed on by older men with spare cash. Many would go for days without taking a bath and could do anything to appease someone who promised them such small luxuries.