Freedom that pains: Absentee ‘baby daddies’ walk scot-free as teen mums suffer

Deep inside the informal settlement of Mathare, 19-year-old Lisa*, sits ruefully outside her mother’s house in Mathare 4A. She is a mother of a one-and-a-half-year-old ruddy boy whom she conceived when she was but 17, in Form Three at a nearby secondary school.

Her case is, however, not unique in this slum where most of her peers, even younger, are already rearing children.

The child’s father, a 22-year-old, poses a threat to her, both physically and emotionally.

Lisa tells Nation.Africa that her experience as a teenage mother is not rosy. She dropped out of school, gave birth and began dealing with an absentee father who was done with her as soon as she got pregnant.

To date, the man, identified as Frederick, does not offer support. Though he currently lives with another young girl, in the same area, he still beats up Lisa whenever he sees her talk to another man.

“He is a violent man. He tells me he is jealous when he sees me with other men, including his friends. In January 2021, he beat me up and I bled from my face,” she tearfully says.

To date, she walks in fear that her former boyfriend may pounce on her any time. Asked why she has never taken the matter to the police, her answer is immediate.

“Nothing will happen. So many ‘baby daddies’ walk around free, and anyway, he is still my child’s father,” she says.

This is the sad reality in a country currently ranked in the top 40, globally, on matters of teenage pregnancy.

Read also: My life as a teen mother

“In Kenya, the painful truth is that one out of every three mothers attending an antenatal clinic is an adolescent aged 10–19. We also know that one in three of our adolescent and young girls under the age of 18, have experienced some form of violence, including sexual and gender-based violence,” says Health Principal Secretary Susan Mochache.

She further reveals that about 21 per cent, totalling 317,644, of all pregnancies in 2021, were among adolescents aged 10–19. Of these pregnancies, 20,803, were in nine counties, Nairobi, Kajiado, Homa Bay, Meru, Kericho, Narok, Kisii, Mandera and Bomet.

According to the National Plan of Action for Addressing Health Teenage Pregnancy in Kenya, 2021, at least 24 per cent of the country’s population is made up of young people aged between 10 and 19 years, going by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics 2019 data.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Sadly, the plan notes that many teenagers die prematurely or suffer long-term health complications as a result of preventable diseases such as teenage pregnancies and HIV/Aids.

In 2018, the World Health Organisation also noted that every year, about 21 million girls aged between 15 and 19, and two million girls aged under 15, get pregnant in developing regions. Sub-Saharan Africa region accounts for the highest adolescent fertility rate at 119.7 compared to the global average of 58.1 births per 1,000 women aged 15–19.

Lisa’s case, as aforementioned, is not different from that of Dani, an 18-year-old mother of a two-year-old girl. The baby was fathered in 2020 by a man who claimed to be a lawyer but disappeared as soon as he learnt that Dani would not abort the baby.

And as soon as the sponsor from Europe who paid her school fees found out she was pregnant, she cut her funding, prompting Dani to drop out. Her family has no money to educate her. Her mother says the tough economic times have seen many of the households where she offered laundry services cut down on costs, effectively rendering her jobless.

Months after realising Dani was expectant, the man who impregnated her came up with a sinister solution. He got her abortion pills that came with horrifying instructions on a piece of paper. Had Dani’s mother not intercepted the package, she suspects her daughter would have died.

“The note instructed that she swallow the pills using minimum water; and should she feel pain, she should firmly press her tummy. In the event she starts aborting, she should insert her fingers and try pulling out the foetus. He then asked her to call him in case of any complications. I was shocked!” Dani’s mother says.

The young man has never been seen since then. The girl does not know his second name and his whereabouts. She never even asked him where he studied his “law degree”.

At one point, the man, when called by the child’s parents, informed them that they would attain nothing even if they took him to court.

“The young man had guts and even told us (parents) that he is a lawyer and knows the law, and we cannot do anything to him. That was the last we heard from him; the phone number remains switched off to date,” the pained mother says.

Mercy Kavoi, the Assistant County Commissioner for Roysambu, which covers Ruaraka, Utalii and parts of Roysambu sub-locations, admits that teenage pregnancy is a vice tearing apart many families in Mathare slums and Ruaraka.

She says poverty has seen many girls run into the arms of older men who lure them with enticements as cheap as chips or biscuits.

“Also, the houses here are very small and when parents have sex at night, the children hear them and at times, see what happens. This exposes them to sex while very young and soon, they want to experiment it,” she says.

Sadly, out-of-court settlement of cases poses a great threat to justice, with many culprits and victims’ parents colluding and solving the matter among themselves.

“These criminals’ freedom pains, but what can we do when even the same parents get in the way at times? Parents solve these issues through Kangaroo courts. There are no witnesses in court, people fear reprisals. Nevertheless, let them know that we will arrest all of them,” Ms Kavoi tells Nation.Africa.

Another worrying trend is where rogue chemists supply abortion pills illegally. This vice is on the rise in Mathare and Ruaraka. So easy is it to get the pill that teenagers walk to the counter, buy it and disappear from home, for two days during which they bleed profusely, Irene Nyambega, a social worker in Mathare, reveals.  Continued on Page 10.

“We have rescued many girls who have bled severely while hiding in their boyfriends’ rooms or even in vacant houses where they hide from their parents. We want the government to clump down on these chemists,” Ms Nyambega says.

Defilement case

The exorbitant prices of getting P3 forms from hospitals, which range between Sh1,000 and Sh2,000, has barred many parents from attaining the documents. Ms Kavoi, however, points out that the P3 forms should be issued for free.

Legally, the P3 forms should be free, Patricia Mundia, an advocate of the High Court who practices family law and represents children and victims of gender-based violence explains.

“To successfully prosecute a child defilement case, the prosecution must prove three things, the age of the child, the penetration and the identity of the prosecutor. Should one of these things not be proved, the entire case will tumble down,” she says.

As such, Dani’s case, and that of several other girls, cannot be prosecuted until they positively identify their perpetrators, and the police present them in court.

The unavailability of medical practitioners to confirm penetration on the victim is another challenge that greatly delays the cases. “There was a time I waited for over three years for a medical officer to confirm whether a victim had been defiled, and the case dragged on for so long that it had to be closed,” she says.

If successfully convicted, an offender who defiles a child below 11 years is sentenced to life imprisonment, if the child is between 12 and 15 years, the offender is liable to an imprisonment not less than 20 years. If the victim is between 16 and 18 years, the perpetrator is liable to an imprisonment of not less than 15 years.

Six months

“These sentences are mandatory and on that, the law, as enshrined in the Constitution, is very clear,” Ms Mundia says.

Ten kilometres further east from Mathare, we are at Motomoto village in Mukuru slums where we meet a 14-year-old holding her five-month-old baby on her laps. Her eyes are distant, still, having seen things and deeds that a teen her age should not have.

Sheila* remembers she met her child’s father through a friend in early 2021. The man’s name, Junior. She does not even know how old he was, but just that she used to see him around their area.

So innocent was she that even after missing her monthly periods for six months, she never thought pregnancy had anything to with it. It was until her mother noticed a soft protrusion on her stomach and confirmed she was pregnant.

She sat her daughter down and Sheila spilled the beans. She looked for Junior and informed him of her condition. That was the last day she ever saw him. His family, which she knew stayed near her home, moved away too.

It is impossible to report the case when she does not have the man’s name, phone number or even a physical address. She has never received a dime in child support. Her mother occasionally washes people’s clothes in the neighbouring Imara Daima estate, to make ends meet.

Bitter pill

“I have never met the young man nor do I even know his name because I am sure Junior isn’t his name. How can we trace him when my daughter knows nothing about him? Knowing he is free, pains me to the core. I just have to swallow the bitter pill and take care of my child and her child,” she says.

Two doors from Sheila’s house, is another 17-year-old Belinda*, who aspires to be a journalist in the future. She is a mother to a one-year-old daughter. The father, Douglas, ran away as soon as she told him she was pregnant.

Should she meet him, she is sure she will harm him in one way or another as recompense for his deeds to her. “I am glad I was welcomed back to school after a brief pause. I feel bad that Douglas is hiding somewhere, free and probably impregnating another young girl,” she says while advising young girls to focus on their studies.

Mukuru Kwa Njenga location Chief Evans Munene, says poverty and rampant drug and alcohol abuse have contributed to the area’s crime rate, which is already spilling over with school dropouts resorting to crime.

“Most of these children get impregnated by their fellow youth; criminals who dropped out of school. They have no known homes and do not care about the welfare of their children’s mothers,” Mr Munene says.

He observes that poor parenting is a contributor to the teenage pregnancy challenge, with most parents, in constant search of money, neglecting their children and whenever their daughter is defiled, they hash out the matter in closed door meetings; opting for Kangaroo courts.

“There are several unreported cases and this is probably why most perpetrators are walking free. We are sensitising the community on the importance of educating their children; we also discourage parents from opting for Kangaroo courts,” he says.

Grandmother

Some 400 kilometres away in Shisasari village in Kakamega, a 10-year-old child is scarred. She was defiled by a man entrusted with her security last year.

The culprit, her school watchman, lured her with mandazis and took advantage of her. Her grandmother reported the matter to the Shisasari Police Station and recorded under OB number 32/4/8/2021. The child’s grandmother has lost hope, accusing the police of laxity.

“It is now a year since I reported this case and they (police) have been taking me in rounds. The last time I was there, they told me to look for the watchman and inform them as soon as I spot him so that they arrest him,” she says.

Police, however, refuted these claims saying the suspect escaped as soon as he knew they were on his trail. The officers said they last tracked his phone’s signal, seven months ago, in Cherangany before the cell went dead.

The police officer handling the case tells Nation.Africa that though they lost trail of the culprit, they are still following up on the matter. While they wait for the criminal to show up, the child remains withdrawn and traumatised. Despite being transferred to another school, her academic performance has massively dropped.

Her father, a police officer based in Nakuru, is helpless knowing he helps other parents arrest criminals, yet no one seems willing to arrest the one who defiled his daughter.

Still, the government has made public its plans to eradicate teenage pregnancy by 2030. An excerpt from the 2021 plan details how this goal is to be achieved.

Set targets

It targeted “teenage pregnancy reduction from 18 per cent to 12 per cent by 2020, 10 per cent by 2025 and elimination by 2030”.

The Kenya Economic Survey, 2021, however, says at least 16.3 per cent of teenagers were pregnant in 2020, showing that even though there was a decline, much still needs to be done to achieve the set targets.

The government hopes to do so by strengthening advocacy, data collection and recording, and the use of innovations and technology for adolescents’ health.

For Dr Wangeci Irungu, defilement of children below the age of 18 not only causes physical, but also psychological damage to them. Having been a doctor in one of Nairobi’s busy public hospitals, she has seen it all. She defines child defilement as the rape of a child, an act that causes penetration through the insertion of genitalia of one person to another.

Physically, teenagers suffer tearing of genitalia, incontinence, as well as diseases such as HIV/Aids and sexually transmitted infections and in the process, get more health complications from these diseases. At times, the young girls get pregnant, becoming mothers to children while they too, are still children, she explains.

Unsafe abortions

“Teenage pregnancy comes with many challenges. There is increased chances for mortality caused by pregnancy complications such as hypertension in pregnancy for teenagers. There are cases of unsafe abortions, hampered development of the babies who are born as pre-term and even underweight,” she says.

The mother, too, is grossly affected, she adds. With child birth, the teenage mother’s natural development is destroyed, her growth stages disrupted and in the event she has no one to turn to, she has to take up wifely roles while still a teenager, subjecting her to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) by her older partner.

“All these factors create an acute change to any child. This young mother has no money, she has limited access to healthcare, nutrition and as such, her education and development are effected negatively. The mother might have a safe delivery but the child-rearing is not safe for her growth into adulthood, she skips very many stages,” Dr Irungu says.

Read also: Report: Cruel remarks hindering teen mums’ return to school

To end these cases, the medical practitioner believes the government should invest heavily in keeping the girl child in school and ensure there is effective sexual education in schools.

“We should create awareness on what teenage pregnancy is so that we eradicate stigma, which causes many SGBV victims to remain silent and in the process, get harmed,” she says.

Margaret Nzuki, a child protection volunteer based at Mathare chief’s office, explains that once a child is defiled, they lose their self-esteem and social stigmatisation by the public does not make it easier for them.

Most drop out of school and give up in life. To redirect them to their life’s purpose, Ms Nzuki, alongside other volunteers run counselling sessions that offer trauma healing programmes to the girls.

Sadly, most reported cases end at the police station where most parents opt for out-of-court settlements and within no time, the suspects are free, ready to prowl on the next victims.

“It breaks my heart to see the fear in our girls when they know that whoever defiled them still walks free. These law breakers should be behind bars, their freedom pains not only the girls, but the entire society. I know the government has done much but more can still be done,” she concludes.

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