Easy but rough road child mothers take

By Jeckonia Otieno

Underage girls becoming pregnant and subsequently getting married to men older than them is so common in western Kenya that no one raises an eyebrow.

Poverty, early sexual maturity and the allure of easy money have been cited as causes of this turn of events but nothing tangible is being done to change the status quo.

Mercyline Lumumba is one such girl who found herself in this situation. At 17 she conceived and

POVERTY CYCLE: This girl is barely ready to take care of herself or make important decisions in life yet she has been thrust into motherhood. Last June, Busia District Hospital had 23 deliveries by such child mothers. Small gifts tempt such girls to give in to sexual demands. Photos: Jeckonia Otieno/Standard

got married. She delivered at the Busia District Hospital on June 18. But, as it normally happens, her 24-year-old ‘husband’ vanished when she went into labour, leaving her in hospital with no means to pay the bill that had accumulated to Sh5,000.

I don’t know what to do

Earlier she had dropped out of Muslim Secondary School in Kakamega due to fees constraints to join a local polytechnic but left for Busia soon after to live with her grandmother.

“I do not know what to do or who to turn to,” says Lumumba, a distance look on her face.

Lumumba’s story falls in a ‘normal’ script that girls in this region find themselves living by; falling in love with men who use and later dump them.

In June, Busia District Hospital alone recorded 23 births by girls below 18 years. If records from other smaller hospitals in the region are put together, the numbers would be shocking.

Ambrose Fwamba, the Busia District Public Health Officer, attributes the rise in such cases to moral decadence.

“When we were young,” he says, “our parents would advise us through parables but nowadays parenting duties have been left to the world.”

Fwamba decries the fact that parents are either too busy to counsel and guide their children or the children are busy imitating foreign trends since parents have failed as role models.

When a 24-year-old man defiles a girl aged 12, it is normal for society to look the other way, claiming there was consent on the part of the girl. If someone asks questions, Fwamba says, then the case is settled out of court.

Blame technology

In getting to the bottom of the upsurge of teen pregnancies, there is always something to  blame. Technology has taken a big chunk of the blame — that is because many children have access to unregulated Internet through mobile phones. They can access pornographic material at a tender age and this is especially due to peer pressure. But in regions where poverty is rampant, other factors stand out.

The charm of money is a  factor in the rural areas. Most of these girls who fall for such traps are orphans who end up with men who can give little money and a promise of a better life.

 Jacob Ochieng’, who works with Centre the Study of Adolescence, which engages in improving health and development among young people in Siaya, Busia and Bungoma counties, says sometimes getting a girl hooked goes even lower than money — that something as simple as telling her she is beautiful is enough.

Path of life

Rose Opondo, an educationist who hails from Rarieda, identifies boda boda riders as the most notable culprits who tempt teenage girls with as small a gift as a plate of chips. She asserts that these young men remain idle most of the time and end up engaging the girls in illicit relations. Dr Opondo believes lack of role models to guide the girls, especially those from poor homes,  on the path of life causes the backslidings.

“For most girls, sex is the most valuable gift they can give in return for these favours and handouts,” she states

Rarieda District Education Officer, David Mwandihi also blames poverty for the problem. Some ‘rich’ men flaunt money to woo the girls for their sexual pleasures.

Mwandihi points out that a recent survey in Rarieda found out that of the 8,400 students, 34 per cent were orphans. These are easy prey for idle men especially the boda boda operators and fishermen.

night dances

Societal norms are also to blame. Funerals in these areas are incomplete without night dances, which Mwandihi says, have nothing to with mourning. Rather, people, who are mostly young, enjoy dancing before pairing up in the dead of the night for sexual escapades. This situation is the same in Busia where the dances are locally known as oloko.

He cites a case where one student, a candidate in the district, went for a night-after-funeral dance and allegedly killed somebody after a disagreement over a girl.  “I had to organise for him to sit exams at the Kodiaga Prison in Kisumu,” recalls Mwandihi.

There is hope for these girls as many Non Governmental Organisations are now spearheading efforts to educate them about saying no to sex relationships before marriage.