Survivors of early marriage rise against the odds in Baringo
By Dorothy Jebet, June 28, 2025In 2022, a five-year-old girl arrived at Top View Academy in Marigat, Baringo County. Clad in a traditional headgear fashioned from treated clay, or Supto in Pokot, her clothes hinted at a life of hardship.
The clay, mixed with cow fat, marked her as a betrothed woman, ready to shoulder wifely duties despite her youth. In the absence of her husband, her mother-in-law stayed with her, a stark reminder of her new reality.
This was Jeptui Leperis*, rescued from an early marriage and enrolled at Top View Academy with dreams of becoming a teacher.
Her aspirations were shattered at a young age when she was married off and separated from her twin sister following her parents’ separation.
In August 2022, I met Jeptui for the first time during the school’s Academic Day. At that time, more than 50 girls rescued from early marriage were attending the school.
Visiting the school again recently to follow up on her welfare, I found a transformed Jeptui. Her hair was beautifully trimmed, her face glowed, yet her big brown eyes still betrayed the raw emotions etched deep in her mind.
“She hasn’t healed from the trauma she suffered after being married off by her alcoholic father,” shared Monica Toroitich, her Grade Two teacher. Despite the turmoil, Jeptui is an ambitious little girl with huge dreams. Her favourite subject is Mathematics. “Maths drives me towards my goals, and I will not relent until I graduate as a mathematics teacher.”
Big dreams
Jeptui aims to realise her dream of becoming a teacher so she can be a catalyst for change in her Pokot community. “I would like to change attitudes towards girls and education in my community,” she said.
The school’s principal, Mr. Edward Omari, is full of praise for these survivors.
“I am proud of these girls who have proved that one’s background does not decide destiny.”
Omari is appealing to well-wishers and donors to partner with the school to sustain these learners.
Although she hasn’t seen or heard from her mother and twin sister for six years, Jeptui is consistently among the top five performers in her grade.
“It is long since I saw my mother and my twin sister, but I have plans to find them once I complete college and secure a job,” she noted. She plans to pursue a teaching career to educate children from the Pokot community and campaign against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and child marriage.
Ms. Toroitich thanked the Baringo-based CBO Elimu Kwanza Initiative (EKI) for their initiatives geared towards ensuring that all girls at risk are enrolled in school to get an education.
Stories of resilience
Beyond Jeptui, there is Jeptarus Chipoterwa, a Grade Six student at the same school with a similar background as a rescued child bride.
Jeptarus is thankful to EKI and Retired Colonel James Kwonyike for rescuing her and giving her an opportunity to chase her dreams.
“I was married off by my father six years ago, and now I am giving my best shot to my education so that I can be a vessel for change and a role model in my community,” she says.
Jeptarus is one of the best learners in her class.
I met her mother, Komo Krop, at her Silale home, 105 kilometres from Top View Academy.
“My daughter is my pillar. I believe she will make something great for herself,” the mother said, beaming at the news that her fifth-born daughter was clever and disciplined.
There are already success stories of rescued child brides now in high school or waiting to join university.
These include Chekurgat Lotole*, a Form Two student at Ruth Kiptui Girls’ High School in Baringo North sub-county, and five others in various secondary schools in and outside Baringo County.
These girls are fortunate to be in school. Other children rescued at the same time have since dropped out due to lack of fees and other essentials or are attending schools elsewhere in Baringo County.
Mercy Tuiya is another child marriage survivor with a heart-wrenching story. In 2016, her father withdrew her from school to look after livestock after her brothers were initiated. She later learned his true intentions: her schooling was over.
Mercy, then a Standard Seven pupil at Tangulbei Primary School, watched her dreams come to a halt.
“I had no choice but to obey my father’s wishes. We were brought up with strict adherence to culture and obeying your father and other elders,” she explained, noting that a father’s word was final.
“The announcement took me by surprise. I had planned to complete school at the highest level of education, but that was not to be.”
The next day, she was circumcised alongside her neighbour’s daughter, who was also being prepared for forced marriage. “I had agreed to be married off, but I had vehemently refused to be taken through FGM.”
Mercy’s pleas to her father hit a brick wall. Two days later, an old woman from a village across the ridge visited their home and performed black magic on Mercy, known locally as Kelityi chi boyon.
“The magic has the potency of causing confusion in the mind of the person being targeted to the extent that she/he can do things without his/her knowledge.”
The magic worked, and Mercy was led to be cut “like a sheep to the slaughter house.”
After three weeks, her wounds healed, and she was married off. Her father received six cows and 40 goats for her hand in marriage.
“I gathered my few clothes, stuffed them into a shopping bag, and was led to my husband’s village, where I spent the night preparing to build my house with sticks and grass.”
She settled into her new home, beginning her married life with a man she barely knew. Nine months later, in 2017, at just 17, she became a mother.
From the outset, she discovered that her husband was a drunk and a wife-beater.
“He would slap and kick me when he arrived just for his ego-maniacal pleasure,” she recounted.
Mercy’s journey
The mother of three remembers a chilling incident one day after undergoing a caesarean section at the Baringo County Referral Hospital (BCRH).
After being discharged, she arrived home a happy mom to a bouncing baby boy. Two days later, her husband beat her until she fainted.
Were it not for her co-wife, she would have died. It was during her healing that her husband married another wife, who became a close friend and support system for Mercy.
“She used to cook for me, and we ate together, although we lived in different quarters.”
After she recovered, she decided to leave for her parents’ home, but her father ordered her back to her husband, stating that a colossal bride price had been paid.
“My father emphasised that he had depleted the goats and cows that my husband paid for my hand in marriage.”
She had no choice but to return to the man she feared and loathed. Before long, she had three more children, the last of whom died at one week old due to illness. The beatings continued.
Then, one day in 2023, a neighbour who worked in Kitale met her along the road near her home. This chance encounter would offer Mercy a safe haven, albeit for a short time.
“After learning about my suffering, the woman agreed to take me to Kitale if only I could leave my children with my parents.”
The following day, she took her children to her mother and left with the woman for Kitale, where she stayed for two weeks before her husband discovered her whereabouts.
“A close friend to my husband suspected that I had left with the woman. He informed my husband, who in turn called the woman and threatened her with dire consequences if she did not release me. That is how I was reunited with the batterer against my will.”
Mercy ran away again after frequent violence, and this time, her father did not chase her away. Fast forward, Mercy is now a trained hairdresser in Kabarnet town, Baringo County, after a chance encounter with Ms. Carole Jebet, an employee of the Collaborative Centre for Gender and Development (CCGD).
Jebet enrolled her into a Master Card-funded programme that skills young women to be financially independent.
“Mercy has gone through so much, and it is time she started to be free of all the suffering,” Jebet said.