Girls in Teso sold into marriage for sh50,000

By Paul Kiwuuwa and David Lumu

A Police probe into child marriage in Teso has discovered that girls are sold to suitors for as low as sh50,000.

But, if you don’t have sh50,000, a bag of dry cassava is one of the items parents ask for as bride price in exchange for their underage daughters, Margaret Adong, the head of the Police family and child protection department at Soroti Police Station, said.

According to Adong, three goats or two cows could also bail a man out.

Speaking during a campaign geared at ending child marriage in Amuria district over the weekend, Adong told a team from World Vision that the reason parents attach a price to children is because of the rising famine and poverty levels in Teso, which comprises the districts of Soroti, Amuria, Katakwi, Kaberamaido, Tororo, Serere, Ngora, Kumi and Bukedea.

“During famine, girls are married off so that the bride price can be used to feed the remaining members of the family,” she said. Experts said the problem could lead to a spike in the HIV\AIDS rate in the region.

“Due to high poverty levels,  parents are forcing their children into marriage saying: ‘Let me get what I can out you before I die.’ This has exposed the children to sex at an early age,” Adong said. She said the trend has led to school dropouts, child pregnancies and marriages.

A World Vision assessment of the situation indicates that “more than 90% of children” in Teso are married off below the age of 18. The launch of the ‘End Child Marriage’ campaign was attended by civil society organisations, the Police, World Vision and local government officials.

There was a unanimous call for mass mobilisation to arrest the situation. Adong said the Police has since embarked on a massive hunt for the young girls who were married off so that they can be returned to their parents.

The Police are also arresting those who marry the girls  so that they face charges of defilement. “In 2013, Soroti Police Station registered 319 cases of defilement related to child marriages,” she said.


How they are married off

According to John Francis Oluma, the Soroti LC5 chairman, parents usually negotiate the bride clandestinely without the knowledge of the child. He said when the deal is over, the parent of the girl child then sends the “poor and innocent girl” to the family of the suitor after telling her that she is going for holidays.

“Actually, they assure the little girl that the suitor is a relative. However, what happens when the girl gets there is a different thing altogether,” he said. 

James Kaahwa, the regional operations manager of the World Vision, said parental neglect coupled with poverty, cultural practices and alcoholism contribute to the crisis.

What political leaders say?

Kumi County MP Patrick Oboi Amuriat called on the local  leaders and the Police to enforce the defilement law. “All the perpetrators like parents and guardians who marry off their children due to poverty should be imprisoned. The defilers should be imprisoned and we should encourage the victim to go back to school,” he said.

Soroti Woman MP Angelline Osegge called for massive sensitisation. “The law enforcers need to sensitise the people about the effects of marrying off the girl child.

Poverty should also be handled by empowering the communities with farming inputs to ensure that they grow food to sustain themselves and sell off the excess for money,”  she said.

National Female Youth MP Monicah Amoding said sensitising the community about the importance of educating the girls would curb the vice. “If girls are empowered through education the dependence ratio is minimised,” she said.