Early sex among girls in Kilifi County continues to disrupt the education of girls leading to high dropout rates despite heightened campaigns by the government and non-governmental organisation to tame the trends and retain girls in school.
Although the county boasts of heightened modernisation and human rights awareness due to its position as an international tourist destination, a majority of its people continue to languish in poverty and retrogressive cultural practices blamed for early marriages.
According to a research carried out by the Department of Educational Foundations, School Of Education, Kenyatta University scholar Rubai Mandela Ochieng involvement in early sex remained deep rooted cultural practice among girls in Kilifi.
“Early sex is a deeply rooted cultural practice among girls in Kilifi that has negative implications to education for sustainable development and hence should be fought by all means,’’ says the researcher.
He insists that tourists, boda boda riders and the elderly in the general community continued to entice underage girls to premarital sex leading to unwanted pregnancies, early and forced marriages generally disrupting schooling by the affected girls.
The million dollar tourism and other industries dominated by a small section of the community according to Ochieng was also a drawback with male domestic workers from palatial beach houses and men from the cement and sisal factories nearby blamed for high levels of abuse of girls sexually.
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“These moneyed workers often offered money for sex and sometimes defiled the girls who refused to cooperate with them and further ended not reporting such cases of parents, guardians or the authorities at school or at the police stations,’’ said the scholar.
Communities, the scholar suggested needed sensitising on the implications of early sex and initiation of income generating activities for families to ensure they educated their children mainly the girl child.
Researchers and child right advocates, the scholars insists needed to debate and discuss ethical issues relating to research and child protection to identify the best interest of the child without violating the norms of confidentiality.
Ochieng said that there is also need for placement of professionally trained counsellors in schools, most not only well intentioned but also non-judgemental in the way they deal with the pupils, and addressed issues arising from early sex and sexual abuse.
The safety of girls at the community level, Ochieng felt would be ensured if the community worked with the local administration to identify and prosecute perpetrators of child abuse and curb participation of children night discos and traditional ceremonies that expose them to sex.
By Robert Nyagah
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