At least each of the 84 households in Kotayo village, Magarini Sub-County in Kilifi County, a minor has been defiled, raped and exposed to teenage pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) even as the police are on the spot for turning a blind eye to the soaring cases.

Numerous interviews with saddened villagers and local whistle-blowers recently revealed a trend where reports by the affected population don’t go beyond police stations.

It emerged that in events where the cases have managed to reach the courts, the information contained in the police Occurrence Book (OB) records, is either distorted or incomprehensible.

One such case is of a young man who defiled two siblings, and several months down the line, those two harrowing incidents, have not been executed according to the law.

In one occasion, the perpetrator dragged one of the girls into a nearby bush and raped her as she was doing laundry, four kilometres away from their homestead.

Perpetrator at large

“I felt so bad. I was helpless, I couldn’t even scream for help as the man threatened us with dire consequences,” the 16-year-old school going girl narrated at their home.

A few weeks later, the same perpetrator also raped her sister.

“One evening I was going to the shops, and I met him along the way. I greeted him by word of mouth, but he insisted on a handshake. He couldn’t let my hand free,” the girl recounted.

She struggled to free herself from the man’s hard grip, but he was too strong and he managed to drag her to the bushes and raped her.

“Again, he threatened me with unknown consequences if I reported him,” she said amid sobs.

Her father painted a sorrowful image as they narrated these incidences with the father calling on relevant authorities to act on the matter soon and quickly.

“We went to Malindi Law Courts after I sold all my goats and cows just to be told that the reports from the police station in Magarini, where the case was reported has loopholes,” the old man lamented.

These are not isolated cases, a Nyumba Kumi leader, Vincent Maitha Mweni revealed that at least one or two cases of defilement have taken place in each household in Kotayo village.

Seeking justice

“In this village, we have 84 households and in each of them, we have at least one or two minors that have been raped. It’s a sad situation,” Mweni said, also revealing that his life is in danger following threats on his life for being a whistleblower.

“I am appealing for protection as these people may come for my head any time,” he added, maintaining that he will not stop his mission to rid the village of the rapists.

Across the valley, a 17-year-old Form Two drop-out has just given birth. She is sad, and can’t even comprehend her new status as teenage mother as the father wanted to chase her away from home after she got pregnant. Her assailant raped her, and fled. Police in Magarini Sub-County said, the child’s father is a minor and cannot be charged before a court of law.

However, the girl’s parents and Mweni insist that the said boy is an adult, a registered Kenyan citizen with an Identity Card, and want him to be apprehended.

“All we want is justice,” the sobbing parents, mother and father appealed.

They do not understand why the police are insisting that the man who impregnated their daughter is a minor when they know him very well.

“My daughter was the light of this home. We had a lot of hope in her, and spent everything to see her through primary school,” the father said as he broke down.

The perpetrator has since gone underground.

“The OCS Magarini Police Station has refused to re-arrest the young man, saying he is a minor. This is even after we showed them his identity card,” the Nyuma Kumi leader said.

Magarini senior chief, Johnson Karema said defilement has been the order of the day in the area, and mostly their cases die at the police station, and if they make it to the courts, victims are unable to express themselves properly, so they lose on the cases.

“Lack of a friendly atmosphere stops the girls from saying exactly what happened to them. However, some of the strategies, such as the establishment of gender desk and collaboration with elders and Nyumba Kumi leaders, we are now seeing some of the affected girls coming out to talk,” said the chief.

Day of the Girl Child

As celebrations to mark the International Day of the Girl Child in Magarini Marafa Vocational Training Centre hosted by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) Kenya and the County Government of Kilifi, a dark cloud hang around the venue as testimonies of girls who became young mothers barely past their teens, were paraded.

Leaders revealed that early pregnancies, marriages of girls barely in their teens, defilement and gender-based violence cases were still on a spiral.

The live threat of sorcery and even murder were cited as some of the contributors to the ever-rising defilement cases in the area.

This triggered the attention of various leaders and stakeholders who have called for an urgent national dialogue, including enactment of a legislation that protects young girls, to curb the vice.

The young girls claimed that their perpetrators used threats of sorcery and witchcraft to lure them into illicit sex. Most of these girls became expectant, HIV positive, or those who refused, were battered. “The rate of teenage pregnancy in this area is so high and disturbing. I have recorded cases of defilement on a daily, it has become normal,” Naomi Kazungu, Magarini Sub-County children protection officer said, calling for fast tracking of a legislation to protect the young girls. She, however, noted that many cases go unreported.

She recalled that in one week, her office rescues up to five girls aged between 10 and 18 years from these vices, and urged parents to support their children in reporting these cases so that action can be taken.

They also face another challenge of police bribery by the perpetrators and perpetrators’ parents to tamper with the cases. “We contribute so much for burials, but we are not doing the same to push these cases beyond police stations,” she noted.

She called for a community-wide engagement to empower girls to speak up and report the cases.

Poverty, culture and traditional beliefs were cited as some of the contributors to the ever-rising teenage pregnancies, early marriages and cases of rape and defilement in Kilifi County.

The leaders who included nominated senator, Gloria Orwoba, AHF’s Girls Act Programme ambassador, also suggested that there should be an urgent establishment of a platform for community sensitisation, and a multi-agency collaboration to deal with these cases.

Political boundaries

She’s particularly emphatic that for some of these vices against the young girls to be avoided, the country needs to have legislations that empower them to focus on their education more than other disruptive issues; be they social or economic.

“The Sanitary Towels Bill 2023 for instance, if it successfully goes through parliament and becomes a legislative document, it will enable the provision of sanitary towels to the young girls as a way of keeping them in school and out of the propping eyes of the perpetrators,” she said after presiding over the celebrations.

She urges parliamentarians will stay clear of political affiliations and pass the bill for the collective good of the country’s girl child. “Protection and nurturing of our girls as the future generation of this country’s leadership and management does not know political boundaries. So I am hoping all of us, regardless of our leaning politically can come together to make their dream come true for our girls,” she said.

She participated in the launch of the new Girls Act logo and branding recently, which showcased the different trends and cultures.

Protecting rights of girls

I am here today as the Girls Act champion to congratulate them for participating in the”competition and emerging second out of 45 countries in the world. They came second to the Philippines and were the only African country that emerged top five in the competition,” she said.

The County Chief Officer for Gender, Agneta Karembo said lack of a county legislation protecting the rights of girls in Kilifi had contributed a lot to the challenges being witnessed.

“As a department we are fast tracking a policy that will champion for the rights of girls in the county,” she said. Confirming that already the County had identified male champions who will push for the policy to be adopted by residents of the county through public participation.

AHF Kenya Country Director, Dr Samuel Kinyanjui, the organisation has founded the Girls Act Programme divided into three categories for girl, below 14 years, those between 15 and 18 and those between 19 and 24, to nurture them through mentorship; provision of sanitary towels; higher education learning and other technical skills.

“At the moment AHF is supporting 47 girls across the country in colleges; universities and TVETs to empower them to be independent,” he added.

A Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network (Kelin) report this year said adolescent mothers were experiencing extreme physical, sexual and mental health consequences.

These include unplanned pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, depression, trauma and anxiety. Others are risky sexual behaviours, drugs and alcohol abuse, early marriage, early motherhood and unsafe abortion.