By Amoto Dennis
Kwale Women Focus Initiative blames parents for initiating their daughters to luring men for money.
According to the initiative’s chairman Pendo Lugogo, the parents are responsible for the cases of pregnancies and early child marriages leading to high rate of school dropout rate.
‘’Admittedly we have rising cases of poverty having come due to Covid -19 paneic but that shouldn’t be a carte blanche to push families to send their daughters to predicating men for sexual affairs ,’’ he said .
The initiative (KWFI) accused parents for letting their daughters fall prey for the little money to make their children drop out of school and ruin their lives. He adds that it is unfortunate at this time and age that parents coach their daughters on how to fetch money from predators, so as to earn money and beat the world deadliest disease -poverty.
In addition he said the trend of competition for fancy weddings amongst families in Kwale also ignites the prospect for child marriages.
As at the end of last year, more than 2,821 cases of teen pregnancies were reported in Kwale County. Sad as that may be, it was good news as it recorded 70% drop from the previous 8,000 cases reported in the previous year.
Whereas in 2020 Equality Now Foundation rescued four girls from early marriages in Matuga , Lugogo warned parents against destroying the future of their daughters through early marriages and exposing school children to sex trade which leads to dropping out.
‘’Once these girls get used to cheap and quick cash learning become a tall order and dropping out of school is the way out ,’’ Lugogo said .
He predicted cases of sexual exploitation are likely to increase once the tourism industry opens up.
He added that girls go for tourists with the express hope of getting wealthy from the foreigners who carry lots of money.
‘’Since these tourists carry lots of money parents pressure their school girl daughters to become easy catch and earn some quick cash ,’’ said Lugogo who sadly noted that many sexual harassment cases go unreported since parents accept money to resolve them out of court .
