A Seven Year Old girl who is set to marry her "grandfather"

At the tender age of 7, Serem (not her real name) has already been booked for marriage by a man too old enough to be her grandfather. Soon she will be joining her husband’s Harlem of six wives to become the seventh.

Serem has never been to school. But the process of marrying her off has already begun. Her future husband-a man almost ten times her age- has been piling beads on Serem's young neck, a symbol of wealth and love. The more the beads stringed around the young girl’s little neck, the closer she draws to the marital bed.

As her age mates hurry to school every morning, she remains behind, learning how to take care of her husband who can come knocking on the door to her parent’s Manyatta- a collection of traditional mud roofed dwellings made from sticks and smeared with cow dung-  as soon as he has finished paying her dowry.

By now you must be wondering if Serem’s story is real or a figment of imagination. It is real, as real as the hot and dusty sands of Turkana County, where girls barely out of their diapers are ‘booked’ for marriage by men old enough to be their grandfathers.

Here, a girl’'s betrothal is marked by of the number of beads strung around her neck. A single beaded necklace around the neck means that the wearer, no matter her age, is booked for marriage, and as such, does not need to go to school.

In fact, in some parts of Turkana, going to school means losing ‘marital value.’ According to Sr. Imelda Namasaka of Saint Augustine Catholic Church, Lodwar, girls who have not gone to school among the Turkana tend to attract higher bride price than for those who have attained formal education.

"Some of the young girls in Turkana don't go to school because they are waiting for the time when their husbands will come and pick them," Sr. Imelda explains. As a result, formal education remains an elusive dream for many.

On an average school day at Kalokol village, next to Lake Turkana, one immediately notices girls roaming on the hot, dusty terrains. They did not go to school, instead they remained behind to help their mothers with house work, including repairing the manyattas (traditional houses). They know very well that they must learn as much as they can from their mothers; because soon they will be building their own houses.  

In the evening, they are taught how to take care of their future husbands. In many instances, they are made to understand that they do not need to go school to make good wives.

Perennial conflict due to cattle rustling, poverty and under-development in the area have not made things any easier for the Turkana people, especially the children. Schools are scattered far and wide; some as far as 20 kilometers from each other. There are reported incidences where cattle rustlers have killed either children or abducted girls, and this has also relatively contributed to study lethargy in the region.

 The church in Turkana has been on the frontline in campaigning for the girl-child. Through Sisters of Kakamega, of Saint Augustine – Lodwar Community- the Church has constantly stepped in to save young girls from early marriages.   

Still, it is never easy to convince the Turkana to abandon sections of their traditions that continue to hinder the education of their children. In fact, parents form a bigger 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 teachers in Turkana allege that bringing the girls back to school after marriage is a life-size problem as the old and considerably dangerous men who had married them started threatening the teachers and the school’s chairmen. Peter Cheseto is a teacher in Lodwar town, and he says that the problem of early marriages among young girls has far reaching effects of the whole society of Turkana. “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,” he regretted.

Rescuing young children from marriages is such a delicate operation in Turkana that can lead to severe consequences including vicious confrontations between the rescuers and the husbands of the girls. The Catholic Church of Lodwar has since devised a number of non-violent tools to face this social scourge. The first approach was to establish a school where any young girl can run to for education and protection by the church. The St. Augustine School has been receiving children from various parts of Northern Kenya and the number of children being enrolled for studies has always been on an increase. “Many young girls are currently turning up for studies, and the most surpising thing is that, these Turkana children are very brilliant. They understand concepts so fast and they don’t easily forget things,” Sr. Imelda Namasaka of Lodwar.

The Catholic Church of Lodwar also engages in educational advocacy to their congregations, through sound teachings against ancient cultures that interfere with human developments. Parents are taught the importance of education to themselves and to their children. This project has since brought forth a number of fruits with parents allowing children to attend school. The parents have also joined part time classes for adulthood studies in Lodwar town. The adulthood school has got a number of adults who have turned up to receive formal education in a region where for a long time education was never considered important.     

The problem that is rampant in Kalokol area of Turkana County was exacerbated by the perpetual cattle rustling violence between the Turkana and Pokot communities that has also seen children drop out of school for years hence the high levels of delinquency. As well, female genital mutilation among many Northern Kenyan communities 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 of this cultural aspect and take the girls in as wives.

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 gonorrhea. 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.