The World of a Child Bride

Orphaned Girls at Risk in Kenya

In northern Kenya, a vast stretch of dry and harsh country stretches out almost as far as the eye can see. It a place so harsh that it can sustain few permanent villages; tribes are nomadic here, and a circle of huts or shelters can appear one day and vanish the next.

The Samburu people are the most common in this particular region, drifting across this landscape with their herds of cattle. They’re a gerontocracy, which means that elders are the leaders of each community. Young men are sent to watch over the cattle in the bush, while older men manage the day-to-day work inside the village. As a result of this dynamic, they will often take multiple wives.

If a family is poor, daughters — depending on their parents’ perspective — either have an opportunity for a better life with an well-established man, or viewed as a burden that can be removed through an early marriage. Many of these girls are married off at a very young age, if their family is struggling to feed all of their children or if they see a chance for their daughter to have an easier life. This is so common that UNICEF found in 2017 that as many as 56% of girls in Northern Kenya are given away in child marriage.

Mali was one of them. She was 12 years old when a much older man took her as his next wife. 

Her parents had died, and she and her siblings were orphans. Their extended family were called upon to care for the children, but Mali was deemed old enough to support herself through a strategic marriage. The cattle dowry they would receive for her would help support her family and younger siblings. Mali knew this, and although she was frightened and sad to have to sacrifice her childhood, she accepted the arrangement.

A few months later, Mali realized she was pregnant. However, she was so young that her body was still not ready to carry a child to term. Complications quickly arose, and the local midwife became very worried that Mali and her child would not survive labor. The village women gathered, and midwife induced Mali’s miscarriage. The entire experience was excruciating both physically and mentally. It left Mali so dangerously weak that the family resorted to taking her to a bush hospital out of fear that she would die.

A local pastor who frequently came to the hospital to pray with patients met Mali and was horrified when he heard what she’d gone through and heard how young she was.

He promptly reached out to World Challenge’s partners in Nairobi, Agape Hope Children Centre, who work with orphaned children and help them find safe homes. They brought Mali to Nairobi and offered to let her stay in the main campus and start going to school. This was an opportunity that few Samburu girls receive, and Mali leapt at the chance. The team prayed over her and also set up regular visits with a counselor to help her process and heal from her marriage and the harrowing loss of her child.

The team brought Mali along with the other children to church, shared Bible stories with her about Christ who sacrificed his life to save hers. 

Mali devoted her life to the Savior who reached out to rescue her before she even know who he was.

Now she is a soft-spoken, young woman who enjoys leading the younger children in their evening devotions. She is on the brink of graduating from high school and has dreams of continuing on to collage. Despite her difficult past, she loves her family and her people. She hopes to one day return to the Samburu community as an advocate for other girls. 

Her testimony is one of God’s redemptive power to heal, restore, and give a new future and hope!