From a young age, a girl is groomed to be a household caretaker in preparation for marriage.
Often, girls are viewed as sources of income and hence practices of early child marriage are a fete for most communities as it is an exchange of the girl for dowry.
Kenya is a signatory to several international and regional human rights treaties that seek to protect adolescents including; Ministerial Commitment on Comprehensive Sexuality Education and SRH Services for Adolescents and Young People in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA, 2013) , Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) ratified in 1990, Program of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD, 1994). Implementation has been a key challenge i.e. Uptake of Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) in school’s curriculum is yet to take place.
Harmful cultural practices
All communities have customs that they observe and practice. However, some cultures subjugate girls, taking advantage of rites of passage to commodify girls, therefore, endangering their lives.
Some of the practices include female genital mutilation which signifies a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood eventually leading to early child marriage.
In the Turkana community, the practice of beading is commonly witnessed. This signifies that a girl has been betrothed. It is saddening to see girls as young as 10 wearing the beads.
The United Nations Population Fund estimates that over 700 million women alive today were married in childhood with 17 per cent of them living in Africa.
To eliminate child marriage in totality by 2030, progress must be 17 times faster than the progress that has been made in the last decade.
Lack of adequate legal framework and coordination
Child marriage has been illegal in Kenya since 2001 with the enactment of the Children Act. The Act defines a child as anyone below the age of 18 years, hence has no capacity to enter or consent to a union.
There have been subsequent laws that have reiterated this fact including the Sexual Offences Act,2006, The Penal Code, revised Edition 2012, and the Marriage Act,2014.
However, we continue to see more girls being married off before the age of 18. According to UNFPA, Kenya has dropped in the prevalence of marriage from 27 per cent to 21 per cent. Nevertheless, this is far from the mark of having zero child brides.
The current laws have loopholes or are silent on issues that affect the livelihood of girls. The law is clear that “a child cannot enter a union with an adult”.
Instances of rescuing a girl and justice never being served are a common thread as unscrupulous officials manipulate the system engineered by the loopholes found in some of the laws.
Child marriage is a harmful practice that interferes not only with a girl’s potential but her future too.
The government needs to show the goodwill of implementing the laws it currently has while closing on the loopholes that it has.
Ensure that the all-girls access quality education which includes implementing the comprehensive sex education curriculum which adheres to age-appropriate sexual reproductive and health rights. This will empower girls to make informed decisions. The lawmakers need to review the current laws and fix the loopholes. They also should come up with a policy on ending child marriage that feeds into the policy of ending FGM. County governments should follow in the footsteps of Makueni county in providing safe houses for girls at risk of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV). Each county should have government-run shelter houses that are affordable and easily accessible. All officials who are involved in response to gender based violence including chiefs, police officers, health workers and court officials should undergo recurrent training to know how best to handle these types of cases. Most girls and women don’t report sexual abuse because of fear of being mistreated. The Judiciary should fast track cases of sexual abuse while respecting the statutory minimum custodial sentence.
