Defilement disguised as early marriage

By JECKONIA OTIENO

Janet shudders when she remembers the ordeal she went through in the hands of three brothers in Chwele, Bungoma County just recently.

The 12-year-old, a pupil at Kibichore Primary School, was duped into marriage last month but just within two weeks; she was back home after a frantic search effort that led her father to a local radio station to announce her disappearance.

Her mother had been away, at a funeral. She told her father she was going to the market. But she was not to return. This is one case of defilement that girls in Bungoma have to deal with.  The Kenya Demographic and Health Survey notes that 12 per cent of women aged 15 to 49 reports that their first sexual intercourse was forced. Women whose age at first sex was below 15 years are more likely to report their first intercourse was forced than those who initiated sex at an older age.

She informed her teacher a day after she returned home and the matter was duly reported at Kimilili Police Station. Janet was later taken to hospital.  Apart from the trauma she had to undergo in the hands of her partner’s brothers, Janet and her siblings are infested with jiggers.

Sexual infections

In her relationship, she was susceptible to sexually related infections including HIV partly because of her tender age and probable lack of negotiation skills. The UNFPA reports that 50 per cent of all new HIV infections occur among young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years.

This could be as a result of the fact that these young girls are not in a position to negotiate for safe sex. Young people still lack information, skills and services they need to protect themselves from HIV.

In countries like Kenya, it is estimated that in the next five to six years, 60 per cent and 40 per cent of new infections among women and men respectively will occur to adolescents between the ages of 14 and 19. According to Mr Albert Obuyyi of the Centre for the Study of Adolescence (CSA) lack of information is a major problem facing the youth. This makes them suffer in silence hence the need to have devolved information systems. “We are trying to reach the youth in Bungoma County by initiating youth friendly services where the young people can air their views so that they are helped without being stigmatised,” states Obuyyi. Janet found herself in a precarious situation every single day when her ‘husband’, a bodaboda operator left home for work.

“His younger brothers would come and sleep with me against my will and I felt I could not take it any more. I ran away,” states the traumatised girl. According to CSA, the breakdown in traditional family systems, urbanisation and the influence of the mass media are some of the factors contributing to increased early sexual activity.

No education

About 40 per cent of Kenyan adolescent girls without any education are either pregnant or are mothers. For those who have completed primary education 26 per cent are mothers compared to only 8 per cent of those with secondary education or higher, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.

This means women with higher education levels are more likely to have less children than those with less formal education. More saddening was the fact that even parents did not take time to report the matter because, as the father states, “People would just tell us that they had seen her in the market so we knew she was just around and that is why we did not go to the police.” Not far from Chwele at Chepkurkur Primary School, nine girls were reported to have been married off recently; six of them were pregnant by the time they were brought back to school.

It is believed that parents are also part of this problem as many of them let the vice continue in their very own eyes without raising a finger, thus leaving the girl-child in a helpless position.

The school’s head teacher Zakayo Ndiema says that bringing the girls back to school was a big problem as the young who had married them started threatening him and the school’s chairman, Masud Chemaswet.  Ndiema says, “We are trying hard to get those who are responsible to be brought to book despite the fact that they are threatening us with dire consequences for taking their wives.”

The problem that is rampant in Chebyuk area of Bungoma County was exacerbated by the violence by the Sabaot Lands Defence Force that displaced people and saw children drop out of school for two years hence the high levels of delinquency. Female genital mutilation also contributes in a big way to this problem since culture dictates that once a girl is cut then she is ready for marriage, regardless of the age. Men therefore take advantage and take the girls in.

Girls are therefore predisposed to dangers associated with reproductive health that stems from defilement that comes automatically with the early marriage due to their young age. The latest report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) states that Women who experience physical or sexual partner violence are 1.5 times more likely to acquire syphilis infection, chlamydia, or gonorrhoea. In some regions like sub-Saharan Africa, they are 1.5 times more likely to acquire HIV.

The report further noted that Africa leads in cases of sexual violence at 45.6 per cent of cases of both intimate and non-intimate partner violence. Kenya is one of the countries from which data was gotten when the WHO report was being compiled.

Utter neglect

The problem of girls goes beyond just being defiled in the early marriages but being neglected after some years. Ndiema says that most of the young men who marry these girls end up abusing them and subjecting them to violence before finally leaving after some years. States Ndiema: “These young men barely stay with these girls for two years before they are thrown out or neglected; this therefore results in many broken or dysfunctional families with traumatised girls.”

However, all is not lost because according to CSA, some mileage has been covered in trying to diffuse the whole problem facing young girls in the area.  Ms Vidalin Akinyi, who coordinates a programme dubbed Y4Y – Youth for Youth – that works in Kabuchai, Khalumli, Malakisi, Chwele, Miendo, Nalondo, Butonge, Webuye, Kimilili and Sirisia among other areas says that the youth are being used both in and out of school to teach fellow youth about reproductive health. “We have peer trainers and caregivers whose capacity we build so that they can take care of reproductive health issues because we believe young people need special care especially in their adolescent years,” says Akinyi.

As part of a programme to mitigate early marriages – plus the sexual violence that comes with it, pregnancies and the need to avoid diseases, Akinyi says that CSA strongly advocates for youth friendly centres in every health facility; in these centres the young people can get information and can be served without fear that comes with having to line up with adults while waiting to be served as this makes them uneasy.

 Akinyi says, “Some do not trust health facilities, so even when they are defiled or violated, they instead resort to silence while they are slowly dying inside but youth friendly centres with their peers help in making them speak out to people who better understand their issues.”

Mercy Kendi, a trained nurse in Bungoma says there are high cases of teenage girls pregnancy. She puts a figure of about 18 teenage pregnancies that she serves out of every 50.

“This is just talking about girls who are under 18 years and if there is a very thin line between defilement and marriages because of the culture that tends to be quiet when such things happen – teenage marriages is in a way abetted by the culture,” remarks Kendi.

Ms Kendi feels that reproductive health sessions should be strengthened among young people because in this way they can be helped to understand that engaging in early sex is not healthy for them but if they have to then they have to be protected.