By Obegi Malack
obegimalack@gmail.com
Kajiado West Deputy County Commissioner (DCC), Morekwa Morang’a, has told men who prefer teenage school’s girls to buy their wives school uniforms.
The DCC who presided over award of Elimu scholarship to bright but needy students that sat their 2021 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCSE) said men should be ashamed of ruining the future of young girls.
He reiterated that some men are old enough to be grandfathers of the teenage girls.
He said the government will take action to such men having sexual affairs with girls who are below the age of eighteen years.
Human rights advocate, Nancy Milanoi, who is also the founder of Naretu Maa Community-Based Organization and a victim of early marriage and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) urged the community to embrace education and do away with the dangerous old practices.
Milanoi advocates for girls’ education and against dangerous traditional practices. She underwent FGM when she was 12 years old and was unsuccessfully forced to get married to a 70-year-old man when she was in class five.
She is in the committee that was involved in vetting students who benefited from the Elimu scholarships.
In Kajiado County, the number of FGM cases has drastically reduced, thanks to activists like Milanoi and strict government officers.
President Uhuru Kenyatta had committed to put to an end to FGM by 2022 but the act is still practiced by women who move their children to Tanzania.
The enactment of the Prohibition of FGM Act 2011 was also a landmark in the campaign to end FGM.
