Reporting for this article was supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. In a small hut in the village Bubisa, a young bride named Tunne sitting on a makeshift bed couch alone. Cook smoke from a smoldering fire of internal sutures eyes and hides the air and a single ray of sunlight streams through a small hole in the wall, the steps to a window. Tunne, the usual for girls in this region usually wearing today loose head, from dira cotton tip is wrapped in traditional blue wedding fabric, yet rigid by its novelty. The neck is adorned with red and yellow beads. E ‘on March 13 and the Gabra tribe northeastern Kenya is three days of its annual mass wedding ceremony to begin. Across the region, hundreds will be married by couples during a single weekend of celebration cheap weekend. In the village of Bubisa without a gas station or grocery store, which is located about 30 miles north of Marsabit, it develops the nearest town, and 360 miles north of Nairobi, the capital erected tents nation’s families and audio systems such as celebrations kick on from. With the scarf covering his mouth, Tunne tells me that she is 17 years old. But the father said he is 16, and Nuria Gollo, a local activist in the fight against marriage-the child I imagined the bride-young said he is 15 Tunne childlike voice and short stature suggests Gollo probably right. No matter what number is correct, Tunne is, by law, a child and child marriage is illegal in Kenya since 1990, when the country ratified on the Rights of the Child, the Convention as a human rights treaty of the United Nations among nations to protect children from a variety of abuses. More Kenyan laws, including the Children Act 2001, the Sexual Offenses Act of 2006 and the Marriage Act of 2014 (which has specifically the marriage of a child under 18 forbids), further criminalized the practice. In 2013 committed Minister of Health and Education of Kenya, together with the ministers of several other African countries, ending child marriage, until the end of 2020. efforts of Kenya has worked to a certain extent: the proportion of young women aged 20 and 24 years of married had fallen before their 18th birthday from 34% in 1994 to 23% in 2016, the last year for which detailed data are available. But the target date of 2020 for the full child marriage is approaching quickly eliminate, and the country is still far from meeting this target. Partly because of climate change, which has resulted in a resurgence of child marriage, in northern Kenya over the past five years, experts say. Here increasingly frequent droughts and locust infestation with climate change have depleted the water and graz Eland, and the cattle that are the economic backbone of the pastoral community as Bubisa die of hunger, thirst and disease. to face, desperate families are increasingly pulling their daughters from school and marry them off in exchange for new clothes dowry rule, fresh milk drums and several camels. (The camels are highly valued for their milk and meat and to transport their use in humans and goods over long distances in the country’s northern desert of Kenya.) Although it is not widely agree the numbers, a growing number research suggests that climate change increasingly at risk girls at a young age is married. For example, a report in the month of January 2020, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the US Agency for International Development and a report of June was 2,020 released any material found by the United Nations Fund for population (UNFPA), the world in times dowry practices exacerbated the crisis and displacement, such as drought and contribute to a higher prevalence of child marriage. Mohamed Abdullahi, northeastern head of the International United Nations Children’s Fund of Kenya, says that cases as a result of an increase in child marriage in the country Kenya have tried to fight artificial and natural “disasters, particularly drought . “; In recent months, the federal government instructed local law enforcement officials and to crack down on the practice. to do so, as the celebrations in Bubisa commence, police slowly make their way into the tent tends to be the bride the age of each review. But many of the local officials and the police are from the same strains as the families of the couple said Gollo, which means that some will turn a blind eye turn to child marriages. In the course of my reporting, Tunne family and they seem to hide his true age. But even then, he did not tell me that she is 18; Tunne seems so young that hard to believe. Instead, they put their age at 16 or 17, still below the legal limit, but a more realistic approach Gollo said that they believe they can get away with it without difficulty by the authorities. Compared to the rest of the world, Kenya is sitting quite high in the ranks of the countries most likely significant effects of climate change to be felt. In 2018 Kenya Index 36th Global Initiative University of Notre Dame Adaptation ranked among all the countries of the vulnerability to the effects of climate change and to meet in terms of availability of these effects .. 152 average annual temperature per decade in Kenya last 30 years at a rate of 0.34 ° C is increased. The country has two rainy seasons: the long rains, which usually last from April to early June and the short rains that come intermittently from November to December. In recent years, this time of year, rainfall was more intense and become less predictable, causing an increase in dangerous flooding. But it’s drought during the dry season that has had the greatest economic impact in Kenya, and the most profound effect on families as Tunne are. Kenya nine droughts experienced since then between 1950 and 2000. In the 20 years it has already counted at least six. longer droughts have plagued in six of the last 10 years Bubisa. In 2010-2011, the region has suffered what many called the worst in 60 years, decimating the cattle north of Kenyans, who have struggled to retrieve a result. successive droughts of 2015-2016 and 2017-2018 tighten to create an existential crisis for many farmers in the region the problem. It is estimated that about 30% of pet owners Kenyans was forced to find new sources of income from 1997 to 2017, according to a report in 2017 by the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries. And the World Bank estimates that about drought caused losses $1.08 billion last opened in March because of their impact on the cattle population in Kenya between 2007 and 2017. This year, the sky, above average rainfall to bring in many parts of the country. But the rain came too hard, too fast, creating floods that had washed away the seeds farmers plant in the region recently in hopes of regenerating pastures to feed their hungry animals. Instead, in order to survive, families have been forced to make difficult decisions, such as children, they should pull out from school their pets, stove, and whether any unmarried daughters to sell for the dowry. Even if climate change affects every human being on Earth, probably young girls by the demographic donors than any other age or sex, says Dr. Mary Nyasimi, Director of adaptation to climate change for sustainable inclusive Africa, a non-profit support profit organization based in Kenya is injured, including the African development Bank Group and GIC, an international development agency based in Germany. To a large extent, this is because of gender differences deeply rooted in the world, even if they play differently across cultures. Many traditionalists Kenya pastoralist communities in the north, for example, tend to be deeply patriarchal. The boys are the only ones allowed to be financial services and make decisions, and as a result, families will appreciate them more than girls. The girls, on the other hand, are often seen purely in terms of dowry money So to bring in tough economic times pull in., Families usually girls against boys out of school. Free public school, the cost of transportation to and from school, uniforms and even books and pencils While Kenya can not provide prohibitive for many families. “Whatever little they have, they would rather use to educate the child, rather than to educate the girl,” said Halima Aden, Marsabit girl runs a high school. During the drought of 2016, the school moved Tunne parents and accused of herding animals while their brothers continued training get. But things only got worse, as the region continued to suffer drought year after year. Many of Tunne goats and camels family have died over the years, and even more had to be sold to the family to survive. So if a rich family came to the village to Tunne father asks the hand of his daughter in marriage to his 23-year-old son suffered a dowry of three camels, the locals can tell are sold up to $700 for head was too good to refuse an offer. Tunne When I ask if they had a choice in their marriage, she nods. But later in our interview, I asked if you are looking forward to the wedding. It is, he says, but he did not feel able to refuse the Father’s will. “In this tender age, the girl did not have a voice,” says Aden. “The consideration is made by the parents and the girl will not tell their parents.” Nuria Gollo sits on the board of the National Council of the Kenyan Government for children and a local activist in the northern part of the country. His mother is a member of Gollo and Gabra tribes know all too well the physical and emotional toll that child marriage on baby girl takes; was married by his father when he was only 16 Gollo wanted to work as a teacher was, but her new husband would not allow. So she ran away to stay two years later with the support of friends who helped her survive. His parents were offended that her daughter had left her marriage, and for some time Gollo had “a bad relationship” with them, to visit never want to leave her childhood. Finally Gollo was able to realize his dream of working to find a teacher. Six years after leaving their marriage, she married her ex-husband again, and Gollo parents finally began to accept their choice. Gollo former husband finally gave a certificate of divorce, almost 10 years after the marriage is over, but until now has not paid the set of foods in their Islamic marriage contract. Today Gollo is a man who married met then closed the first marriage for almost 15 years and has dedicated his life to fighting child marriage. It ‘well known in the Marsabit region; she travels from village to village to rescue girls who are destined for marriage and bring them back to school. It engages with the families and, if necessary, escalate the case to the local police station. It also works with the Kenyan government to establish rules, regulations and procedures for rates of child marriage in the northern communities to reduce. “I have gone through [child marriage], and I know how painful it is,” said Gollo. “As discouraged me from achieving my desired goals. And I do not want to stay, and the same happens with the younger girls are married off to look at that.” The June report UNFPA has found that most brides girls leave school around the world and immediately begin with the children. They often have no choice: In Kenya, only 56% of women and girls their own decisions about their sexual and reproductive health, even when to have children and how many. Girls all over the world because of higher risks of premature young married face death related to pregnancy is poorly organized, and often repeated pregnancy and childbirth. child brides are also more prone to domestic violence, social isolation and depression. But it is not only the child brides who suffer the effects of early marriage is economically damaging to the country as a whole, because the practice prevents girls achieve an education, and then be able to national workforce to contribute, One 2017 world Bank study found that if the child marriage have been exterminated, the economies of developing trillion dollars by 2030. worldwide, it is estimated that 650 million girls and women live could save were married as children and each day, on average, a little ‘33,000 underage girls are married. The damage that leads to early marriage communities and entire nations is still under investigation, but as the effects of climate change continue to intensify the world to girls like Tunne are increasingly vulnerable to marry off young. Without intervention by governments, organizations and activists, many young girls are sold in countries around the world in marriage, as global temperatures rise and extreme weather becomes more common. Girls who marry early are also more likely to perpetuate stereotyped gender roles and to apply these standards for their children, after the report in June 2020 by UNFPA. “If a girl falls from school, and she goes on and survived the [same] life [she] he mother lives … will not grow in this community, and life is not will be better for everyone,” says Aden, who runs school for girls in Marsabit. “The vicious circle will continue.” But some are trying to break this cycle. In Marsabit, 17 years Gumato Kunni brings me home one room that held blameless old for her husband and two year old daughter, Rukia. She invites me on the mobile one, a mattress to sit on the floor. “My parents have been married badly,” said Kunni. “Without cattle, we have nothing.” Finally, members of the Gabra tribe family, some animals have to buy, but they were still needed. “We used to borrow milk from our neighbors and other people who were close to us,” he says. As a child in the remote village Burgabo grow, deep in the desert Chalbi, Kunni was diligent and dreamed of being a teacher and to educate future generations of girls. The 2015 drought has destroyed the dreams. One day this year, Kunni says her father came home empty-handed operation only his shepherd’s staff. The few animals owned family were all dead. “When my marriage proposal came [two years later], I was married,” he says. “My community has sold their children at any time, marriage proposals come away.” Kunni the 21-year-old is a truck driver father and a good provider, he says. The couple moved about 60 miles south of Marsabit Rukia hoping to provide a better life than he’d grow. Kunni says he married the worst part so young, on their childhood was missing out and play and have fun with their friends. As we speak, sings Rukia, and throws it up and down, screaming like little girl with joy. “I love my daughter so much,” says Kunni me, her soft brown eyes will light up. “I dream that their child is educated and that will help in the future, and [we] also.” Correction, August 13 The original version of this story and video misrepresentation Nuria Gollo tribes. His mother is a member of Gabra tribes, while she is a member of another tribe.
Kenya seeks to End Child Marriage. But climate change is younger girls at risk
