By Amoto Ndiewo
Maramtu sub- location in Tana North Sub-county is home to 16-year old Habib Salio (not her real name). She lives with her husband for whom she is busy making breakfast in a smoke-filled kitchen as her age mates rush to school when Education New(EN) visited.
She is not alone; so many of her age mates of either gender have found themselves pushed into matrimony.
A survey conducted by EN on child marriage in the region revealed that some girls drop out of school after getting pregnant, or are forced into marriage to cover the shame of having a child out of wedlock.
A Tana River Smart Survey of February 2020 shows that less than 5% of girls were in pre-primary, 35% in primary and 16% in secondary schools in the sub-county.
Majority of them had been married off to elderly men.
‘’ These senior citizens falsely believe that marrying young girls will revive their sex life,’’ said Mowlid Kono, an award winning civil right activist.
The findings also paint a grim picture of mothers initiating the unions casually as a friendly gesture.
‘’It all starts as a conversation between two women while fetching water,’’ says Wailuwana community king Hayu Babisani.
The friends later suggest to their spouses that in order to strengthen their relationship, their children ought to get married. It can be between minors themselves or older people and minors.
Hayu adds that once the consent is given, gifts are exchanged between the two families and soon ends in marriage.
“Even before the ceremony, word begins to spread around and the children’s attention suffers. The embarrassment caused is the final straw that that breaks the back of the camel,” Hayu regrets.
He added that education is superseded by social ties as observed in the number of girls completing primary school; of 32,815 enrolled, only 13,464 finished school as at 2019.
The same sentiments are shared by Mowlid Kono. He says marriage between minors is just as common as minors marrying elders.
‘’Instead of parents taking responsibility to guide their children through infatuation, they either become protective or turn a blind eye,’’ noted Kono.
Marriage negotiations take place deceptively where parents claim their daughter had transferred to another school, making it difficult for chiefs to take action.
Meanwhile Mororo Senior Assistant chief Mohamed Lokha has called for more children to enrol in local primary schools.
In an exclusive interview with Education News, the assistant chief called on Mororo residents to enrol their children in school.
Lokha said that given the benefits of education, it was sad that the enrolment of the local primary school was at rock bottom.
‘There are about 8,865 people living within Mororo sub-location yet the local primary school has less than 687 students, ‘’said Lokha, projecting that the school ought to have more than one thousand pupils.
Lokha dismissed the argument that poverty was a reason for the low enrolment in school. Recalling that the region was embroiled in a bitter vicious circle of fighting poverty, illiteracy and disease, he said the remedy was taking children to school.
‘’And to break the vicious circle we must take our children to school,’’ said Lokha.
In this respect, he asked all the head men to in the six villages to encourage parents to take their children to school.
He expressed concern over the rising crime perpetrated by a youthful gang known as Kayole.
‘’Though they are known, our attempts to have them taken to court have borne little fruit as they always find their way out of the police station,’’ regretted Lokha .
The senior assistant chief regretted that parents had abdicated their parental duties to allow their children do as they wished.
He added that due to negligence some children have opted to fend for themselves, thus driving them to crime.
‘’It is regrettable that school age children are engaging even in livestock theft,’’ said Lokha, saying once the grace period he had given was over, his office will arrest both children and their parents to face the law.
