Two women arraigned for attempting to forcefully marry off 15-year-old girl

Two women arrested for attempting to marry off a 15-year-old girl in Eastleigh on Sunday were on Monday charged in a Makadara court.

The two women were charged with subjecting a minor to a forced marriage. They, however, denied the charges and were released on bail.

The women are said to be relatives of the girl rescued by activists and a Citizen TV crew hours before she was to be driven to Nakuru to meet her suitor.

When the Citizen TV team arrived on 12th Street, Eastleigh in Nairobi, they embarked on a search for a building where they had been informed that the 15-year-old bride was having her last minute preparations before traveling to Nakuru to meet her new “husband”.

The child bride had recently traveled from Mandera County where she schooled to Nairobi.

She sat her KCPE exams this year scoring 313 marks and even though she was hopeful of proceeding to secondary school, her parents were thinking otherwise.

A husband had been chosen for her in Nakuru and unfortunately, the official wedding, the Nikkah (religious ceremony), had already been done and what was remaining was to start her forced marriage.

“I got an anonymous call of a child who was being forced into marriage, she was not willing to but her parents were insistent,” said human rights activist Fatma Mohammed.

The child bride was later set free after police from Pangani police station raided the salon and foiled attempts to secretly ship the girl to Nakuru.

Her sisters, who had escorted her, were arrested and taken to the Pangani police station where they recorded statements.

The children’s department is expected to take the child bride to safe custody as police continue their hunt for the groom.