• Children as young as 13-year-olds are getting ‘married’ to other children.
• Adolescent children are then left to experience a culture shock as their bodies change.
Image: BRIAN OTIENO
Children officers in Kwale have raised an alarm over the rising cases of children marrying each other. They said children as young as 13 were getting married to their agemates.
In Kinango, a 13-year-old boy married a 15-year-old girl whom he impregnated.
County children officer Stephen Gitau on Monday told the Star the Kinango case was just one of the many that have been reported.
Gitau said underage children were increasingly engaging in sexual encounters which often lead to pregnancies.
“Initially, we used to have old men marrying or impregnating underage girls. But now we are facing a new challenge of child-to-child pregnancies and marriages,” Gitau said.
He said the minors sometimes opt to get married to each other. Gitau spoke during a training session for teenage mothers and adolescent boys at Mwaroni Primary School.
The three-day training was organised by Women In Leadership Network, a group of Australian Awards Alumni, with support from Australia Aid, and in collaboration with Coast Women in Development.
CWID executive director Betty Sharon said poor parentage was one of the key contributors to early pregnancies.
The training is the first programme by the WILN and Australia Award Alumni, a group of five women from different parts of the country.
They are JKUAT lecturer Eucabeth Majiwa, Kenyatta University don Angela Ndaka, Beatrice Khaseke, Juliana Ndolo and Sharon, who is the Alumni’s Coast coordinator.
They said the new phenomenon was difficult to understand.
“We can arguably rule out poverty as a contributing factor but there are cases where students have been sponsored to attend vocational institutions but still drop out,” Sharon said.
She said there was need for a deep discussion with parents, village opinion shapers and other stakeholders so as to arrest the trend.
“Parents have abdicated their responsibility. They do not talk to their children, who end up learning from the social media and other unsuitable places,” she said.
Adolescent children are then left to experience a culture shock as their bodies change, she said. "They start experimenting things without an understanding of the consequences."
“In Kinango, a 15-year-old Standard 8 boy impregnated a 14-year-old Standard 7 girl. The boy opened up to me and said he did not know he could do that,” Amina Faki said. Faki is a journalist who has been documenting such cases.
Gitau said parental neglect was a major challenge they face as a government agency.
Most youth between 18 and 20 have nothing gainful to do and end up loitering in the villages, which makes them vulnerable, he said.
“The most prevalent form of child abuse is Kwale is neglect both from the parents and even from other aspects which leads to other problems like early pregnancies, early marriages and truancy,” Gitau said.
He said legal challenges had exacerbated the problem. He said the courts have declined to handle such cases, with a recent High Court order nullifying all pre-existing cases involving children.
“The High Court said those are issues that need to be dealt with outside of court,” Gitau said. The court said the Children’s Act, says the minors need care and protection and not a jail term.
Faki said the 15-year-old Standard 8 boy spent 21 days in remand before the court ordered that he be released and counseled.
“I talked to the girl later and she said she is waiting for her ‘husband’ to come back home so they could live together. By that time, she was staying at the boy’s place,” Faki said.
One of the teenage mothers said she stayed with her 'husband' for three months before returning to her parents when life became difficult.
“I was hard-headed and stupid. I thought I was on top of the world. But after life became unbearable because we could not even cater for the baby, I decided to go back to my parents,” she said.
The husband was still going to school during their 'marriage'
Gitau said the girls were more disadvantaged because they cannot go back to school for one reason or another while the boys can continue with their education.
“It becomes very difficult to address child-to-child pregnancies and marriages in terms of who needs the care and protection because basically both are children and in need care and protection,” he said.
The government has turned to preventive mechanisms to address the challenge.
One way of addressing the matter is to talk to the children, Gitau said.
He said there was need to engage the youth and equip them with life skills, decision-making skills and link them with government services for gainful employment.
He also called for the establishment of rescue centres, which are non-existent at the moment. Kwale only has charitable children institutions, which, according to Gitau, cannot be called rescue centres.
Kwale county social services and talent management executive Ramadhan Bungale told the Star they have taken up the issues and formed a task force to come up with solutions.
“The multi-sectoral taskforce will develop strategies to deal with the matter. We have already held a first meeting and are looking arrest this matter,” Bungale told the Star on phone on Thursday.
Kwale first lady Christine Mvurya, a member of the task force, has her Fanikisha Foundation which seeks to help young mothers get their lives back on track.
Kwale is ranked eighth in the prevalence of child pregnancies with 24 per cent against the national prevalence average of 18 per cent.
Edited by Peter Obuya