Child rights

I don't often post about the abuses that are reported daily in the news. The political corruption and the misappropriation of funds leave the poor wallowing in their poverty. I prefer to talk about the people who struggle to better themselves, who are eager for information and encouragement. The small steps can be very meaningful.
However, the reports of child abuse are hard to take.
Last Monday the newspaper reported on a girl of 10 who was married off seven months ago to a wealthy 68 year-old man as his fourth wife. A woman, a gender activist, walked tirelessly in search of the girl who was hidden away. She found her eventually covered in scars inflicted by the husband teaching her the role of a wife.
The girl escaped once but was forced to return to the 'matrimonial home' by her father since the elders ruled that a wife cannot be away from her husband's house for more than two weeks.
She was eventually taken to the Children's Office in Isiolo and booked into a children's home before being enrolled in school.
There is little being done to discourage the tradition of marrying off underage girls since fines and sentences are relatively lenient.

On Thursday a report from a remote area about 100 kilometres from Isiolo told the story of Itoms who turns five this year. She has been taken from her parents who want her 'circumcised' (the proper term for the procedure in this community is FGM--Female Genital Mutilation) before marrying her off for ten cattle. The morans (young warriors) of the tribe are free to have sex with a girl little more than a baby by placing a necklace, called saen, on her.
According to Samburu tradition four year old Itoms is old enough to fetch bride price for her father. She was booked for marriage to a 27 year old in a ritual called Aisho saen (wearing a necklace) when a local child rights activist heard of it, thanks to a local assistant chief.
In the beading ritual Samburu men identify little girls as brides by giving them a beaded necklace. Child rights activists say this can happen anytime a man meets a young girl, no matter her age.
Once the girl wears the first bead she is as good as married to the man in question. On noticing the necklace the parents start making preparations to have her circumcised (or undergo FGM).
During beading the men are free to have sex with the girls. And once the man graduates to an age group that allows him to marry, he pays 10 cattle to the girl's father and takes her to his home, irrespective of her age.
Child activists say this tradition has ruined the lives of many girls in Samburu where decision making is vested in elders. Girls usually do not attend school and belong completely to their husbands.
As a result, an unknown number of girls fall pregnant as early as 12 years. Many die in the process of giving birth.
Although there are no official figures, officers in the region say the number of children being rescued from early marriage is huge. This is usually between November and January, the marriage and FGM season in Samburu. Children's homes in Isiolo and Nanyuki (serving the Maasai) are packed with children at this time. At one station alone officers have been rescuing 10 girls a month.
The problem after rescuing them is finding space in a children's home.
The old men (elders) who maintain the traditions are the greatest enemy of the Samburu child. Police and other administrators who do not act on reports of FGM and early marriage contribute to the problem while the Children's Department is understaffed and underfunded.