At least 10 girls aged between seven and 17 have been rescued from forced marriages and taken back to schools by human rights organisations in Kwale.
Some were nursing babies while others were pregnant at the time of their rescue.
Sauti ya Wanawake officer Dina Otieno said the majority of the girls’ parents had consented to the illegal marriages.
“In most cases, parents had sorted out the issues traditionally and agreed to give their girls willingly,” she said.
Otieno said some parents were unaware of education and other child rights, while others gave their children away out of poverty.
She said some parents married off the girls after realising they were pregnant following defilement cases to evade responsibility and shame.
The activist said many parents only seek justice when a girl falls pregnant but fail to report the defilement or rape incident, most of which are settled out of court.
Otieno said about 60 per cent of the county’s children had their rights violated through rape, defilement, female genital mutilation and teen marriages.
Almost half of the cases were not reported to the police officers or authorities from the county child department.
The rights organisation noted that the cases had been rising since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, with more than 100 incidents reported from mid-last year to date.
Recently, Kwale gender officer Nelly Amoite said that about seven teenage pregnancies are recorded each month in the region.
This is despite the numerous campaigns conducted by the county multi-agency teams in Kinango and Lunga-Lunga.
Statistics from the county Health department show that last year over 2,821 teen pregnancies were recorded.
Otieno said out of the six coastal counties, Kwale could be leading in the cases of teen pregnancy and forced marriage
She also said that some parents give the children to well-off men for some cash and others are repeatedly married off to men when other marriages don’t work.
“We’ve learnt with deep sorrow that a few of the girls got divorced immediately after their marriage and were left wandering with children and the rest with protruded bellies,” Otieno said.
She said it is a situation that has emotionally and physically affected the teens who are too young to bear motherhood responsibilities.
Otieno said with assistance from Equality Now they have managed to rescue many girls and presented the culprits in court.
She said through the public awareness forums some people are now coming out to file cases against perpetrators of sexual violence.
Last month some 10 cases of teen pregnancy were reported in Matuga, with four girls aged between 15 and 16 rescued from marriage by Equality Now in partnership with Sauti ya Wanawake in 2020.
