I was married off to pay debt
A 16-year-old girl at her Seme home in Kisumu County. She got married at 12 years. Child marriage cases are on the rise owing to Covid-19 economic disruptions.
“My father took money from two men and when they asked him to refund it, he married me off to an old man as a third wife, while I was 14 years, to get money to pay off the debt,” says Ms Kavumbi Kitsao from Sabasaba village, Magarini Sub County in Kilifi County.
Ms Kitsao is among many women in Kilifi who have been forced into early marriages by their families.
Today, Ms Kitsao is an avid campaigner against early marriages arguing that it is a major contributor to poverty because it denies the girls a right to an education, making them dependent on their spouses.
“We will not end poverty in the society if parents keep marrying off their daughters to old men because of their quest for money.
Education is the only thing that will change our families,” says Ms Kitsao.
Aged 44, Ms Kitsao says she blames her father for the suffering she has endured while married to her elderly husband.
She says she started working in the salt mines at 23 years to raise money to take care of her children and aging husband.
Meagre wages
“My husband was old by the time I was getting married to him and he could not provide much for me. It is even worst now because he is older and he cannot perform any task and that has forced me to take care of my children by myself,” she says. Her experienced as a third wife, subjected her to untold suffering.
"One day my co-wife told me I must perform my duties as is expected by the society to bear children for the aging man. But I was scared and kept running away on several occasions," she recalls.
Ms Kitsao says fending for her family in the mines has been a back-breaking task with meagre wages which is barely enough to take care of her family.
She says if she has a chance to an education, her life would be different.
“Sometimes I earn Sh200 in a day, which is not enough to meet my daily needs,” she says.
She, however, adds that she has committed herself to educating her children to enable them have a good life.
“I am making the sacrifice to ensure my children do not face the abject poverty we live in. I want a decent life for them," she adds.
Two of her children will be siting for their KCSE examination this year.
Kilifi County Department of Children Services says many child marriage are organised by parents when they need to get money or when they discover that their daughters are pregnant.
The marriage is arranged to conceal the pregnancy or to avoid having children who are born out of wed-lock and the levies paid by the men responsible for the pregnancies are higher than what would be paid as dowry because it incorporates both the dowry and a penalty.
