Growing cases of child marriage in Malindi raise alarm

By JOHN OYWAThe girl, 13, screamed and cursed as she fought to block children’s protection officers from arresting her husband."He is older than me but he is my husband. I love him and you cannot take him away," she shouted.Minutes later, the girl and her husband, 39, were taken to an assistant chief’s office in Malindi town where two other cases of child marriages had just been recorded that morning.Dressed in a faded kitenge dress and plastic sandals, the girl told the Shella sub-location assistant chief Nicodemus Mwayele that she dropped out of Class Five at a local primary school last year and got married to the motor-cycle taxi operator as a second wife.Her husband, also a primary school dropout, remained defiant and demanded back his wife, prompting the assistant chief and the child protection officials to hand him over to police.No girls in schoolsOn the week The Standard On Saturday team visited his office, the chief had handled four cases relating to child abuse and marriages, with the youngest victim being a Standard Four pupil married off to a traditional healer by her mother.Yet this was just a tip of the iceberg as far as the incidence of child marriages in the area is concerned. In Malindi District, child marriages have become so common that local residents interviewed said there may be no more girls left in schools in the area the next few years."Child marriages are no longer news here. It happens every day and my worry is that schools in Malindi may soon have no girls to teach," said Mwahima Juma, a mechanic.Although famed as a tourist destination, Malindi is one of the most hostile places for the girl child.If they are not being forced into sex, they are either being trafficked into foreign countries or being married to older men.At the Malindi District Children Protection offices, social workers are overwhelmed by cases of child marriages. More than half of their work schedule now involves rescuing abused children and preparing court bundles against the culprits.In a few cases, they have managed to stop the marriages and send the girls back to school. In other cases, they have lost the battles at the altar of religious and cultural beliefs after some Muslim religious leaders intervened to support such marriages, saying their religion allowed girls to marry even at nine years.In a more recent case, Muslim activists stormed the Malindi Juvenile Remand Home demanding the release of a 16-year-old-girl, who had almost been married off to a 23-year-old man. The wedding was called off at the eleventh hour after Government officials declared it illegal.There was a bitter exchange of words between Children Officers and the activists who protested that their faith was being belittled by claims the Children Act was superior to the Islamic law.Community policingAccording to the Constitution, a person must be over 18 years to consent to marriage. A Malindi District Children’s Protection Officer, Donald Owili, said Malindi and Magarini divisions were worst hit by the child marriage cases."The cases are so rampant that we often use members of community policing to help us arrest the husbands and parents marrying off their young children. These children have their future ruined because many such marriages often end up in divorce," said Mr Owili.He added: "The biggest setback in the fight against child marriages are the parents who agree to ‘sell’ their daughters in exchange of dowry. Owili and the assistant chief attribute the rising child abuse cases to influence from the tourism industry, poverty, culture, religion and illiteracy among parents."Tourism plays a role because many of the culprits are beach boys who get money from the tourist and now want to marry the school girls. They use the money to influence the poor parents," said Owili.Peggy Nyambura, a legal assistance with Cradle Kenya, a child rights organisation, describes the situation in Malindi as grim."Child marriages, which are part of child trafficking, happen in Malindi every day. We receive at least a case every day. There are many cases that go unreported," says Ms Nyambura.Nyambura who is attached to the Malindi District Children Protection centre told The Standard On Saturday that many victims of child marriages undergo physical abuse, forcing them to run away from their husbands and eventually into the streets where they engage in child prostitution.The increasing number of child marriages in Kenya is prominently featured in the latest report by a global child rights watch lobby, the International Development Law Organisation.The report says 27 per cent of rural girls and 19 per cent in urban areas get married before their 18th birthday.Titled "Strengthening the legal protection framework for girls in Kenya, India, Bangladesh and Liberia", the report says although the Children Act 2001 and the Sexual Offences Bill 2006 outlaws marriage of girls below 18 years, the vice was on a steady rise in the country. Elizabeth Nafula of Solidarity in Distress (Solwodi) says people marrying girls below 18 years should be charged with defilement."The Children Act refers to a child as any person who is below 18 years who must be protected against harmful cultural practices including early marriages. Having sex with such a person constitutes defilement," Ms Nafula says.

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