Kajiado anti-FGM activist Dorcus Parit and four other people are recuperating in Loitokitok hospital after a road accident on Wednesday night.
Parit was returning to her base in Kimana town in Kajiado South subcounty from rescuing an 11-year-old girl. She had been married to a 50-year-old man in Emarti area of Kajiado East subcounty.
The accident happened at 10pm when Parit's driver struck an antelope and lost control of the vehicle on the new Kajiado-Mashuuru-Duka Moja road at Emukutan.
Parit, speaking on the phone from her hospital bed, on Thursday morning said the vehicle swerved off the road and rolled five times into the bushes.
They were rescued and taken to a hospital in Loitokitok by former Imbirrikani MCA Sayianka ole Kosei. He arrived shortly after the accident.
“I am grateful to God for saving our lives. That includes a minor I had gone to rescue from an early marriage to a man old enough to be her grandfather," Parit said.
On Wednesday morning Parit told the Star how the rescue mission was successful. She thanked Kajiado Central subcounty police commander, Issa Muhamud, for receiving her cordially and providing her with a police escort.
“Sleep well and God bless you,” she told this writer on the phone on Wednesday night.
The anti-FGM ambassador had said she was late leaving Kajiado because the police had taken the girl for a checkup at the county referral hospital to see if she had been injured.
Parit had started the rescue mission at 6am from her Kimana Hope-Beyond Transitional Centre, a home for young girls rescued from early marriages and those running away from FGM.
She had information from a neighbour that an 11-year old girl was married off by her family to a man in Emarti. She found he had two daughters, aged 13 and 14 — not much older than his 'bride'.
The man escaped, the police arrested his wife. Police left a phone message for the man to report to the police station.
FGM and child marriages among the Kajiado Maasai are common. Chiefs appear unwilling or unable to stop them.
(Edited by V. Graham)
