The parents of a 14-year-old girl have decided to marry off their daughter to ‘yelat’, meaning lightning, claiming it represents an invisible man who has has tortured the family for a long time.
The girl, from Nyarkulian Village in West Pokot County, informed her parents mid last year that there was a man "from another world" who wanted to marry her.
The parents did not take it seriously and thought their daughter was disturbed by a bad dream.
The mother,
Chepat Lomerimakel, said when they consulted elders from the community, they were told that it was 'lightning' that wanted to 'marry' their daughter.
Lomerimakel said they performed many rituals to please Yelat and persuade 'him' to allow their daughter to further her education.
“The rituals have not yielded and fruits. The unknown man has been appearing to my daughter each day asking her to persuade us to allow him marry her,” she said.
The mother claims that last December, the alleged suitor informed the class six pupil at Nyarkulian Primary School that if her parents do not consent he would escape with her and they would never see her again.
“This scared us. We we forced to abandon our home and move to another place. This didn’t work. After two days my daughter informed me that the man had again followed them to the new home,” she said.
This year, Lomerimakel said the suitor appeared again to her daughter and said he was willing to pay seven cows and Sh30,000 as dowry.
“I was scared. I have devoted my time to raise my daughter and now unknown man wants to take her away. I decided to escape with her to my parents home in Parua,” she said.
Those doubting the family's claim say they parents may have cooked up a bogus story so as to marry off their under-age daughter to a real man without facing legal consequences.
According to UNICEF, about 26 per cent of Kenyan girls are married before their 18th birthday with the North Eastern and Coast regions having the highest prevalence rates.
In March 2014, the Parliament adopted the Marriage Act 2014 which introduces a uniform minimum age of marriage, set at 18 for both women and men.
Importantly, the new law applies to all forms of marriage including customary marriages.
But among the Pokot, cases of parents arranging marriages for their underage daughters immediately they undergo the outlawed female genital mutilation, are rampant.
Lomerimakel furiously denies arranging any traditional marriage for her daughter. She has consistently supported her education and even tried to enrol her at a different school near her maternal grandparents’ home, she says.
“After two days, while I was still preparing her to enrol in the school, the stranger appeared again to my daughter while she weeding her grandmothers onions. I was amazed, within one hour my daughter had done almost two acres of the plantation. When I asked her she said her suitor had come with his three friends who helped her in weeding the farm,” she claims.
She was scared. She moved back to her husbands home in Nyarkulian to seek the intervention of the community.
Last week, the entire community gathered at the homestead of Kedireng Lomerimakel to witness this rare occasion.
At exactly 3pm the girl arrived together with her mother and walked straight to their home, about 300 metres from the nearby shopping centre.
Businesses were closed as traders rushed to the homestead to witness the unusual marriage negotiations.
Some of the residents were afraid from entering the homestead fearing 'lightning' may chase them away.
The family was forced
hold a meeting with the residents to deliberate on the way forward on the incident.
Addressing the crowd, her sister Cherotich Chereng, said the unknown man appeared to them seven years ago while they were fetching water from the nearby stream and after informing their parents, they performed rituals and the man disappeared.
“When this man first showed up, he was a young boy and we used to play together but my parents could not see him,’ she claimed.
Chereng said she was disappointed that the community had performed some rituals to bar the man from surfacing again.
“We are living in a digital world and I will not support my sister to get married to a person whom the community cannot see and don’t know where he lives,” she said.
The girl claims the man lives underground few metres away from their homestead.
Her mother said she was worried why the unknown man was torturing her daughter and this year she has not reported to school.
The mother said while on their way to Parua, the girl informed her mother that the man was with them and had offered her Sh1000 to give to her.
“I was furious and asked the girl to tell the man to appear so that I
can see him. The man appeared. He was short, brown skin and was holding a smart phone in his hands. We never talked. I just stared at him and after few minutes he vanished,” the mother alleges.
Benson Kapsen, a neighbour, said the man had disturbed the family for many year and the family was forced to sell some land and animals to seek the intervention of Pokot elders.
“The stranger suitor has exposed this family to poverty.
The family is now stressed and are now ready to hand over the girls so that they can stay in peace,” he said.
The parents are now set to marry off the girl in two weeks time after Yelat delivers dowry to the family.
One of the Pokot elders who did not want to be mentioned said such cases were rampant in the community.
“Those who want to marry, they just come and escape with girls, mostly while they are fetching water from the stream. The girl disappears mysterious and she never comes back. This is a rare case where Yelat wants to pay dowry. In most cases they don’t pay dowry,” he said.
Area Member of County Assembly Thomas Cheleken said the incident has never happened in the area.
Cheleken said they are unable to take any legal action against the man for wanting to marry a minor since he is invisible. He said they also cannot take any legal action against the parents.
“This man has insisted for many years and if he could be a normal man, we could arrest and prosecute him for disrupting her education,” he said.
He asked Kenyans who might have experienced such incidents to come forward and share with the family on how to go about.
The MCA, however said
cases of lightning strikes are rampant in the area and assembly had allocated funds to buy lightening arrestors to help prevent loss of lives and property.