Girls risk early marriages as Morans graduate
Celebration marking the graduation of morans to elders at Lororo village, Ilchamus Location Baringo South-Sub County last year. A similar graduation in Samburu now exposes young girls to marriage. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Hundreds of school-going girls in Samburu County are at risk of being married off this season as a sub-group of Morans – Lkishami - graduate.
As the Lkishami exit ‘Moranism’ to pave way for the next generation – Lkisieku – fear is mounting as girls, currently at home due closure of schools in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, risk being married off.
With the Lkishami age group expected to marry and settle down to mark the end of their era, the old age tradition is exposing girls to early marriages, denying them a right to education.
Samburu Girls Foundation estimates that hundreds of young girls across Samburu have been secretly subjected to Female genital Mutilation (FGM) to prepare them for early and forced marriages.
MORANS
Executive Director Josephine Kulea told the Nation gender desk that tens of girls in Samburu East and North have been secretly married off with ceremonies done in secrecy.
Dr Kulea said with mass graduations of Morans, the number of girls threatened to be subjected into early marriages is expected to rise sharply in the coming weeks.
She said the community is taking advantage of the stay-at-home period to perpetrate the deeply entrenched traditions.
"Those who are secretly cut are being prepared and are often married off forcibly. We are worried because Morans are graduating this season," Dr Kulea said.
She said that Samburu community has abandoned some rituals that accompany girl-child circumcision and marriages unlike in the past when the exercise was conducted openly amid traditional and colourful celebrations.
Dr Kulea revealed that new tricks to subject underage girls to circumcision and marriages in Samburu have emerged and are derailing the fight against the retrogressive cultural practices.
Initially, Samburu girls’ initiates were shaved and wore selected beads called Urauri, meant for initiation ceremony.
"It is done in high secrecy because some practices have been abolished to hide from authorities. They are no longer shaved so it is not easy to detect," she said.
Dr Kulea expressed concern over the fate of the girls citing an incident where two girls, aged 10 and 11, were recently rescued from early marriages.
RESCUE CENTRES
"Two girls were rescued and brought to us but unfortunately, we closed down the rescue centres due to Coronavirus pandemic. But we united them with well-wishers among them the anti-FGM board director in Samburu," she revealed.
Dr Kulea revealed that scores of young girls who were in rescue centres across Samburu were sent back to their homes and relatives. She expressed fear that the girls, at the mercy of their families, could be married off.
"We had no option other than freeing them and re-uniting them with their parents because it was a government directive to shut down the centres due to Covid-19," she added.
She said that 99 per cent of FGM related cases in Samburu are not reported.
"These are reported cases only. The number could be more than what we have because most of them often do not report cases. The numbers that we have depicts just one per cent," Dr Kulea said.
