Starving Kilifi parents marrying off underage daughters

Starving Kilifi parents marrying off underage daughters

As famine rages in the country and the cost food soars higher, parents in Kilifi County have resorted to marrying off underage girls as a way of mitigating hunger.

School going girls in Malanga and Langobaya areas are forced into arranged marriages with older men either as a way of reducing size of families or a source of extra cash to feed other members of the families.

“Girls are married off at a younger age because of hunger. For example, if there are eight girls in a family, the parents will arrange for them to get married so as to have enough food for themselves,” said a resident of the area.

Residents in the area have lamented that relief food supplies are hardly enough to sustain the large families thereby forcing several families to join efforts to purchase a single packet of maize floor and share.

“The situation is very dire here. Sometimes three families are forced to contribute for one packet of maize flour so that each family at least gets a cupful of flour to cook porridge,” a resident told Citizen Digital.

They said the situation is as a result of three successive failed rainy seasons.

They are now appealing on the government to sink boreholes in the area to enable them water their crops and avert a repeat of the current situation.

“Our neighbours on the other side have a river they are able to irrigate their farms. We want the government to drill boreholes for us so that we can also do farming like them,” said a victim of the famine.

At least 3 million people have been affected by drought and famine in 23 arid and semi-arid (ASAL) counties in the country.

In February, 2017 President Uhuru Kenyatta declared drought a national disaster and appealed to international partners to help the government to mitigate its effects.

The United Nations committed to raise Ksh17.1 billion to complement 7.4 billion raised by the government to help people affected by the drought.

(Story written by Moses Ngugi)

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United Nations Kilifi County Amason Kingi Kilifi drought and famine Drought in Kenya

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