• Poverty, domestic violence, parental neglect and abuse drive teens to early marriage
Image: PEXELS
The transition into a marriage is not easy, but it’s harder when the couple is very young. Matters get complicated where there’s a baby, especially if the pregnancy was unplanned.
Early marriage is a well-known cultural practice in some communities, but there’s another type of early marriage that some teenagers get into to escape difficulties at home. Poverty, domestic violence, parental neglect and abuse are among the reasons teenagers leave their parents for married life.
One teenage girl in Kisumu told this writer she got married because her parents could not afford school fees and she was tired of idling at home. In some cultures, marriage increases an individual’s standing in society.
Many teenage marriages happen when the girl gets pregnant. To avoid the shame of single parenthood, culture demands that the baby’s father – regardless of his age – marry the girl. In a report published in 2018, Unicef stated that 23 per cent of women aged 20-24 in Kenya were married before the age of 18.
Now in her early twenties, Rose Mnene is in a long-distance marriage. She is a mother of two girls the first of whom is four years old. The second is just six months old.
“I got my first child from a relationship I had while in school,” Mnene says. “I had my second child with my husband.”
The couple has rented a small house close to their rural home, but the husband moved to Nairobi to look for casual jobs. The money he sends pays the rent but barely covers living expenses.
“Of late, he hardly visits us. I often wonder whether I am married because I am raising the children by myself," Mnene says. "I fear he may have found another woman in the city."
Mnene wants to look for work but she is still nursing her secondborn. She plans on getting a job after the baby’s first birthday. Mnene is not sure whether her husband will agree to the decision but her mind is made up.
Under Kenyan law, marriage involving persons under the age of 18 is illegal. Persons over that age can marry but young persons barely out of their teens find it difficult to navigate the ups and downs of marriage. They cannot get well-paying jobs because of their age. Besides, many are unable to pursue education beyond high school.
Low income in the marriage results in stress that may lead to separation. Various forms of abuse, including violence, are likely to affect the marriage. Infidelity arises when one or both spouses feel they married the "wrong person".
Much of the focus of early marriages is on girls because they are the primary caregivers of children, but early marriage is also tough on young husbands. Unicef says under-age husbands are forced to take on adult responsibilities for which they are not prepared.
For both boys and girls, early marriage limits their access to education, thus blocking them from career advancement.
This story first appeared on the digital magazine Star Sasa, accessible on Sundays for Sh10 by dialling *550*3#