FGM, child marriage, banditry in endless cycle in Baringo

The scars on Cheptano Y'walasiwa's body are a constant reminder of her life as a child bride. 

Now 48, she was married off at the age of 10 to a 70-year-old man. 

Cheptano, who comes from the remote Komolion village in Tiaty subcounty, Baringo county recalls the day she was married off. 

"I was barely 10-years-old then and my poor parents had already been handed 10 cows as my dowry by a 70-year-old man," the mother of nine said.

Cheptano had just arrived from the bush where she and other girls had been recuperating for a month after undergoing female genital mutilation. 

She had not fully healed. 

Before Cheptano could enter her mother's house, some men pounced on her, grabbed her and frogmarched her to the old man's home. 

She was to be his sixth wife. 

"I resisted, screamed and cried loudly but the entire village just kept silent as if everyone had colluded to marry me off," Cheptano said.

Married life was torture. 

"The old man would tie me to a tree and beat me every time I resisted his sexual advances. I would get more lashes every time I lost a goat or a sheep on the grazing field," she said.

Her parents did not go to her rescue, they believed what she was going through was normal—a rite of passage. 

So severe were the beatings that to this day she still has scars. 

"I would look at the scars on my body and hate myself. I finally decided to surrender everything to fate,” Cheptano said.

The old man eventually died, leaving her with nine children. 

"All the 10 cows paid to my parents as dowry and the few left behind by my late husband succumbed to drought and diseases, leaving us in abject poverty," she said.

Recently, some old men in her village came to her house with nine cows and forced her 12-year-old daughter to marry one of them. 

"I resisted but they threatened to kill me. I'm now seeking help from the government to get my daughter back home so she can go back to school," Cheptano said.

Despite reporting the matter to the authorities, no action has been taken. 

Four other women have almost similar stories. 

Chebomorkwo Wakak, Jennifer Manamuk, Grace Mukutani and Talaa Katow come from Loyeya, Silale, Riongo, Akwichatis, Chepkalacha, Korossi, Kossitei and Naudo, remote villages in Tiaty.

"None of us went to school. As young women we just learn how to plait our hair, take care of animals, get circumcised and get married off to bear children," Wakak said.

She said in their community women are still treated as children who do not have a say, even in matters of love and relationships.

“Love is meant for old men and younger men who are lucky to possess or inherit some livestock from their departed elders,” Wakak said.

Young widows 

The thing about being married off young to an old man is you will end up widowed young and left with a huge number of children to take care of. 

Katow was left with 11 children.

“I don’t have money to take them to school so I fear some of them will just be forced to drop out,” she said.

FGM, forced early marriage and banditry are still rife in Baringo. They are intertwined. 

Recently, Moses Kwonyike, a retired colonel, and Elimu Kwanza Initiative founder Dorothy Jebet rescued 12 children and enrolled them in school. 

They are currently at Tophill Academy in Marigat, Baringo South.

The school and well-wishers have offered to house them during the upcoming holiday to protect them from the harmful cultures.

"Thousands of children in Tiaty are still locked out of school and due to idleness a number of them, especially the boys, arm themselves with illegal firearms and engage in banditry and cattle rusting," Kwonyike said.

He appealed to the government and well-wishers to help establish rescue centres, build and equip model boarding schools in Tiaty, Baringo North and Baringo South to enrol the children.

Jebet said women and girls from pastoral communities suffer gender-based violence fuelled by poverty and illiteracy.

She called for harsher laws to fight FGM, early marriage and banditry.

Stubborn cultures 

Meanwhile, more than 100 girls rescued by Tangulbei Women Network chairperson Mary Kuket are unaccounted for.

"The girls were accommodated at Tangulbei Boarding Primary School but lacked support. The majority of them gave up because nobody offered to buy them basic needs to retain them in school," Kuket said.

Girls usually undergo FGM in April, July and December. Circumcisers are paid Sh3,000 per girl, one goat or a sheep.

The cut girls are considered ready for marriage and dowry is paid promptly by interested men in the form of camels, cows or goats.

That they are still little girls does not matter to the men. 

Many men take part in cattle rustling expeditions to get the livestock needed to pay dowry, hence, the never-ending banditry in the region. 

County commissioner Abdirisack Jaldesa said the government is committed to ending banditry, restoring peace and sweeping away FGM and early marriage.

"We are only urging our people to remain calm as measures are put in place to arrest the matter and resettle those affected," he said.

But since the 1970s no armed bandit has been arrested and arraigned in court.

Disarmament operations and shoot-to-kill orders have proven ineffective.

No religion has penetrated this region. 

So it remains a land where girls are cut at an early age and married off to men who can pay; those who can't pay go on raids to stock up and the cycle continues. 

Edited by Josephine M. Mayuya