KONGELAI VILLAGE, West Pokot, Kenya – Married at age 9 to a 60-year-old man, Sarah Lotupokol, 15, knows how lucky she is. The help she has received from a group of women in her community to escape her fate is something she will always be grateful for.
At the time of her marriage she had dropped out of school, having reached only Class Two. “On the first day (of marriage), the man told me to sweep the compound and cook for him. When night came, he told me to join him in bed. I was terrified,” she admitted.
Sarah managed to slip outside and locked the house before running off into the night. “Luckily I came to a house where the owners allowed me to sleep over for the night,” she said.
Enabling women to help child brides
The following morning the family took her to the local chief, who knew how to provide support to her. He called the Komesi Women’s Network, formed by a group of women to provide refuge to schoolgirls who run away from home to avoid early marriage, and one of their members stepped forward to help.
In a fiercely patriarchal society, this network of women runs a bee-keeping business to generate funds that enable their households to support girls evading marriage. They use the proceeds of their business to buy tea, rice and sugar for their families. For the past four years Komesi members have provided refuge to countless girls, opening up their homes to them.
“Initially, our husbands were opposed to the group. They wondered why we were bothering with other people’s problems. But today, they see the good things we are able to bring into the house and they do not want us to miss any meetings!” said Susan Krop, Komesi chairperson.
The main preoccupation of the Pokot, a pastoralist community living on the dry and mostly infertile plains of north-western Kenya, is herding cows, goats and sheep. Here, traditional practices are rife, including female genital mutilation (FGM).
When a girl is circumcised, typically around 10 years old, she is considered ready for marriage. In response and with support from UNFPA Kenya, World Vision runs programmes to end child marriage and FGM.
Gruesome treatment of girls
But Sarah is one of the fortunate ones, according to Susan Krop. She related the story of a girl who tried to run away from her husband but was returned by force by two men he hired to find her. The men held her down as her husband raped her as ‘punishment’. “This kind of gruesome story is one we come across every day,” she said.
According to the Kenya Population Situation Analysis report (2013), 10 per cent of all pregnancies in the country occur in girls aged 15 to 19 years. The report showed that 26 per cent of girls in Kenya are married before the age of 18 years. This makes them vulnerable to a number of significant risks.
“When a girl is married too early, it means she will not be educated and will most likely develop problems when giving birth. Her children will very likely be born with health problems, and that cycle of poor health and poverty often runs through generations,” said UNFPA Kenya Gender Analyst, Florence Gachanja.
Though the work of Komesi Women’s Network is bringing about a change in attitudes, the members’ families cannot always support the girls. “The bee-keeping business can only stretch so far,” she said.
This is why they have started work on a mud-walled structure in which they hope to accommodate additional girls plus employ a matron and a security guard. This should reduce the pressure on their families.
“Our husbands have been very understanding,” said Alice. “Because of (Komesi), they can eat rice and take tea, which are very rare commodities here as most people take only milk. Whenever there is no tea, they tell us to go to (group meetings), saying the lack of tea is giving them a headache!”
The formula has proved a win-win situation for the Komesi members’ families and the young girls they support. Today, Sarah lives with Alice, one of the network members. She has returned to school and is now in her first year of secondary school, her life’s potential restored.
By Bernard Muthaka
