A 15-year-old girl from Giataraki location in Maara constituency, Tharaka Nithi county has been rescued from a second marriage by area woman representative Susan Ngugi with the help of local assistant chief.
The form one student was first married off when she was just 13 years old. Her parents saved her from the first marriage and enrolled her in school but she dropped out before being married off to a 19-year-old man.
Ngugi said the first case was never reported to the authorities because it was handled by the elders and the two families involved.
The suspect managed to escape but his mother was arrested and detained at Chogoria Police Station.
The legislator accused the village elder of assisting the suspect’s escape by alerting him of the impending arrest.
She noted that the suspect’s mother lied that the young girl wasn’t at home but upon search, she was found hiding under the bed.
“After interrogation, the girl revealed that her mother had enrolled her in a family planning programme at a nearby health facility,” she revealed, even as she vowed to continue fighting early pregnancies and marriages, Female Genital Mutilation and other harmful cultural vices.
By John Majau
Get more stories from our website: Education News
To write to us or offer feedback, you can reach us at: editor@educationnews.co.ke
You can also follow our social media pages on Twitter: Education News KE and Facebook: Education News Newspaper for timely updates.
