Conspiracy of silence as fathers, teachers prey on school girls

This girl is not your usual student, she is half deaf. She has a mild mental disability and she just sat her KCPE this year. She is also seven months pregnant.

She is 16-year-old, a private candidate for the recently concluded KCPE exams. She sat her exams at Kapsokowony Primary School.

The girl is a former student at Kibuk Primary School in the area but dropped out when she became pregnant. So she registered privately.

"I dropped out of school because other pupils would mock me about my pregnancy," she says.

How the young girl got pregnant is even more saddening because she claims she was defiled by a man who waylaid her.

This is an all too common feature in the area, according to Mt Elgon Sub-county Education Officer Pius Ngoma. He says cases of girls being raped and sorting out the issue locally is normal.

"The community tends to be a bit closed about matters revolving around sex and this has greatly contributed towards the menace. Talking about rape or defilement is more like a taboo," says Mr Ngoma.

Just before the national exams, the Bungoma County education office announced that over 50 pregnant girls would be sitting the exams.

This is not new in the county.

One of the areas that grapple with the issue is Mount Elgon Sub-county which has seen a number of girls get pregnant while still in school.

According to a demographic and health survey, 79 girls under the age of 18 were pregnant in Mt Elgon in 2013. These were just the reported cases. It means two out of every 25 pregnancies were of girls below 18.

Ngoma says one school had about ten cases at the same time last year.

In the local culture, girls cannot sleep under the same roof with their fathers. They are forced to find another place to sleep.

"When they go out there to sleep, anything can happen because they are not under the safety of their parents. And this is one of the major ways through which these pregnancies come," Ngoma says.

Added to this is the issue of girls undergoing the female genital cut after which they are regarded as women ready or sexual exploits.

The problem is compounded by unwillingness by people to blow the whistle because those who do so are viewed as enemies and can even be attacked.

A case comes to mind, for instance, At Bishop Okiring Secondary School where a teacher exposed a case of a 15-year-old secondary school girl engaging in sex with another teacher from the nearby Kipsoen Primary School.

Ngoma says the teacher was threatened with dire consequences for talking about the issue.

The education officer however says after Deputy President William Ruto visited the area last year and warned chiefs that he would hold them responsible for any pregnancy, they (chiefs) have tried their best and one can feel the difference.

Learners are now being encouraged to speak out despite the many challenges. They are also being educated on their rights as children.

Abraham Simiyu, who works with the Centre for Study of Adolescence (CSA) in the area, says in their outreach programmes, they have set up youth friendly centres where these young people can have a forum to tell their stories.

"This encourages them not to suffer in silence because they have someone who they can talk to," says Mr Simiyu adding that 80 schools have been reached.

CIVIL SOCIETY

Simiyu says so far over 9,000 young people have been reached through youth friendly centres in six health facilities in Mt Elgon. He says sexual education is also being undertaken among the young people.

Simiyu however argues that it would be pointless if the community at large is not reached because these girls come from a community and these have to be targeted for behavior change.

Even as stories continue to emerge of girls getting pregnant, it is also an emerging trend that teachers have become sex pests in the area.

Apart from the case at Bishop Okiring, another case was reported at Kibei Primary School where a Standard Seven girl aged 17 was also caught up in a sexual web with the school's deputy head teacher. Both cases are in court.

Officials at the education office say the matter was shocking because the said teacher has two wives, one of them his former student.

Parents have also not been left behind in the commission of atrocities.

A case occurred in Sambocho area where a father defiled his daughter.

The sub-county Quality Assurance and Standards Officer Musungu Murakwa lays blame on the civil society which he says is not coming out strongly to fight these vices.

"If we had a vibrant civil society participation here, some of these cases would be happening. Some men take advantage of the girls knowing too well no one will come following them because the matter won't come out to light," says Murakwa.