- Malonza said the decision was a payback to a man who had helped his father get a job.
- Her father had hunted for a job for almost 20 years when the said man granted him one.
EAC Cabinet Secretary Peninah Malonza has recounted how she got married immediately after she finished her high school education.
Malonza said in her youthful years, education for girls was not valued that much.
"I got married quite earlier just after I had finished form four. It was not easy for girls to study and I remember being the first girl to go to university," she said in an interview on TV47.
Asked if it was poverty that drove her to marriage or if she had found the love of her life, Malonza said the decision was a payback to a man who had helped his father get a job.
Her father had hunted for a job for almost 20 years when the said man granted him one.
The man had many sons while Malonza's father had many daughters.
In that, her father's helper saw an opportunity to gift his son a wife.
"I remember the man involved asking me to marry his son," Malonza said.
The CS said she disagreed with the request because she had a burning desire to pursue university education.
Though the results were not yet out, Malonza says she was confident of acing.
"I knew I had passed the exam and I was going to university."
Malonza says as she pondered her next move, her husband-to-be came for her.
The CS narrates that as a young girl brought up with good morals, she never spent a night anywhere else apart from her parent's home.
"When you're that young, you don't understand yourself. My parents were a bit strict. I was not used to sleeping outside, so when I found myself alone, I did not know what to do," she said.
"Maji yakimwagika hayazoleki. So I decided to heed the marriage call."
One year and two months into the marriage, she gave birth to a baby at 21.
The form four results would later be released ranking her among those who had attained the qualification to join the university.
At that point, she decided it was time to get back to school.
"But the family (in-laws) wanted the wife to stay at home. They didn't want a very educated woman. My husband too had not studied that much; academic matters were then unpopular, especially for women. So there was a rift between the two families."
In a turn of events, the father who married her off became the biggest support system in her resolve to pursue further education.
The decision to get back to school, she says, was fuelled by her humble upbringing, a situation she wanted to change for the better.
"When I looked back and saw the poverty at our home, how I was educated amidst poverty, how my mother suffered and how I was sent back home many times because of school fees, I decided to be patient and further my education."
The decision to go back to school was agreed upon by both families after she committed to reuniting with her husband after getting done with her studies.
But as fate would have it, the husband died before that could happen.
Malonza said she decided to dedicate her life to Christ, a move that would not allow her to be inherited by her late husband's brother, as was expected.
"It was not possible to be inherited by his brother because of the new religion, Christianity," she said.
She had to chart a new path that has seen her beat the odds to reach where she is.