• Many of these girls are among hundreds who have ended up pregnant during this Covid-19 period.
• Offical blames illiteracy, says men take advantage of the lack of exposure of the girls and women to education.
Mothers from the Boni community in Lamu have been sexually trading their young daughters to old men in exchange for miraa.
The girls are aged between 13 to 17 are asked to have sex with men as old as 60.
Many of these girls are among hundreds who have ended up pregnant during this Covid-19 period.
Recently, a 16-year-old in Standard 6 from Mswakini village in Lamu West gave birth after she was sold off to a fisherman by her mother in exchange for miraa and other financial favours.
Nana Abuli, community woman leader among the Boni, said poverty and illiteracy were largely to blame for the poor decisions and also for the increased teen pregnancies.
Speaking in their Mswakini village on Monday, Abuli admitted that mothers in the community are notorious for orchestrating sexual relations between their young daughters and older men to escape poverty and hunger.
“For a kilo of sugar, a packet of miraa or a packet of unga, mothers here will give out their daughters to old men who are mostly fishermen or hunters. I am a woman but I must say mothers here are a big let down to the education and general prosperity of the girl child."
Once pregnant, the girls have three choices - to either marry the old men as third or fourth wives, stay with their parents and nurse the pregnancy or terminate it.
Boni Community Education Drive chairman Pastor Eliud Sangu said the men take advantage of the lack of exposure on the part of the girls and their mothers. He called for sensitisation.
Schollar Mghoi, the World Vision Kenya Lamu Development Programme Officer in charge of Education and Child Protection, said their office had recorded increased cases of transactional sex, a situation that has seen a spike in teen pregnancies.
Edited by R.Wamochie