Police have rescued two pregnant underage girls from early child marriage in Narok West sub-county of Narok county.
The two minors, who were due to join Classes 7 and 8 in Naikarra Boarding Primary School, were lured from the school by their lovers in December last year.
Acting on a tip-off, police officers, chiefs and school head Koileken Lolntubu stormed the home where the girls had been married. They arrested two suspects, the girls' lovers.
Area assistant chief Meipuko Shira said that the girls have been missing since schools opened for the first term. One parent reported that her daughter was not at home.
“When we interrogated these girls, they told us that the suspects made them pregnant before forcing them into marriage; the two men agreed," Shira said.
He added child marriage has been declining after they held a series of sensitisation campaigns but the problem has reemerged.
“The arrest of these men will set an example to other people out there who are fond of playing with the schoolgirls — the law will catch up with them,” Shira said.
Lolntubu said that they realised the two girls were missing after taking a register of all the pupils in the schools.
“It is our school routine to know whether all the students reported back to school during the opening. We realised these girls were missing and started to search," Lolnubu said.
'Then we realised these young girls were been married, we summoned their parents and told them that they were married on New Year's Eve," he said.
The school head added that said men have now started a new way of luring these young girls into marriage by making them pregnant so they can drop out of school and become potential wives.
“The government has been insisting that all the girls who have been impregnated should be allowed back to school to continue with their education even after delivering their babies because they want 100 per cent transition,” Lolntubu said. He is also chairman of the Maasai Mara region heads association.
