​​​​​​​12-year-old rescued after week of two marriages

At only age 12, she has been married twice and separated; once because of the broken promise of bride price to her parents, and second after she was rescued by those fighting for her rights.

The 52-year-old was the first man to marry the minor from Narok. He was planning to finish paying the bride price of one cow, six blankets and some local brew to the girl’s father before the end of the month to claim his ‘wife’ back.

In the same week, her parents married her off to a 35-year-old who had the bride price in full.

On Monday, the local chief and human rights activists arrived at the older man’s home to rescue the girl and arrest him. He, however, got word about the impending arrest and he escaped. The 35-year-old also got wind of the action taken by the local administrator and went into hiding.

CHILDREN'S OFFICE

The two men are yet to be arrested.

Police in Narok are also looking for the girl’s father whose identity we have concealed to protect her. He escaped as soon as he learnt that his daughter’s suitors were being sought.

The 12-year-old, a pupil at Maji Moto Primary School, in Narok South Sub-county, was taken to a safe house in Kajiado County shortly after Majimoto area chief Mr Remoine Ole Mayone and the activists took her to the children offices where the Nation found her on Monday evening.

Sad as it may sound, the Class Five pupil is just one out of hundreds of children in Narok, Samburu and Kajiado counties who have been subjected to forced marriage to older men.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in a report developed during the initial stages of the Covid-19 pandemic titled “State of World Population (SWOP)” already warned that the contagion would expose more girls to marriages because of poverty.

“They reinforce and contribute to higher prevalence of child marriage because younger girls require smaller dowries or command higher bride prices — a younger woman or a girl is perceived to be more valuable in that she has more years ahead of her for childbearing and domestic service,” the report says.

LURE YOUNG GIRLS

Closer home, the National Council on Population and Development (NCPD) in a report it released in April, said that old and young men continue to lure young girls to sex unabated despite efforts by the government, child rights activists and non-governmental organisations to arrest the vice.

Narok County leads with 40 per cent of girls being young mothers or expecting babies with 14per cent of adolescent girls married off.

Girl-child rights activists have lamented that the global pandemic has led to an increase in the number of children being married off as their parents find ways of looking for money to fend for their families.

To them, this is the easiest way to raise money, since men in the Maasai community consider the girl a property that can be given away at will, in exchange for money, a few cows and goats.

Mr Mayone said the 12-year old had lived with the 52-year-old for close to a week and with the 35-year-old for three days, before concerned members of the community raised alarm, prompting the administration and the child rights activists to intervene.

EIGHT CHILDREN

“She was forced to marry the first man who is older than her father, before she fled to the home of the second man who is already a father of two children. That is where we found her and managed to rescue her,” he said.

The chief revealed that the girl comes from a family of eight children and that her father has a history of domestic violence and abuse. He had initially been summoned by the chief after he attempted to throw his family out of the home to sell his 50-acre land.

Before the recent attempts, the chief said, the girl’s father had attempted to marry her off to another man as the third wife, but the child escaped to her grandmother’s house in the same location.

“She only returned home when schools closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Mr Mayone.

The girl told the Nation that she had been performing well in school and wants to be a doctor when she grows up.

Mr Mayone said since schools closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, cases of FGM, teenage pregnancies, and early marriages in the area have reached alarming levels.

CHILD MARRIAGE NORMALISED

He said in the last two months, he has received reports that 26 teenage girls have been impregnated in his locality, many of whom have been married off.

“Here, child marriage has been normalised and not much is said about it, yet it is rampant. After FGM, these girls will be married off,” he said.

Narok County, which is predominantly a pastoral community, registered 40 per cent teenage pregnancies which is worsened by FGM and early marriages, according to the 2014 Kenya Demographic Health Survey (KDHS).

Narok County Commissioner Samuel Kimiti warned parents against subjecting their children to retrogressive practices, saying no one will be spared by the law.

The commissioner asked chiefs to be in the frontline in fighting for the rights of children.

NCPD recommended that laws and policies such as the Sexual Offences Act, 2006, The Children's Act and the Marriage Act be invoked in the fight against child marriages and teenage pregnancies.