CES Canada Advocates for Women's Rights

Child Marriage in East Africa: An Unacceptable Reality

Young women in East Africa face high levels of violence, discrimination and marginalization. Early marriage denies girls their rights to health, education, equality, non-discrimination and a life free of exploitation. In rural western Kenya, CES Canada continues to advocate for young women’s empowerment by providing equal opportunity for education. By encouraging girls to stay in school, CES demonstrates its commitment to influencing the community to stand against the practice of child marriage.

Students at Kakamega Muslim SS

Further to being a human rights violation, child marriage also undermines efforts to reduce poverty. There is a strong correlation between child marriage and girls dropping out of school. Girls are denied the education they need for their own personal and career development. There are also serious health implications. Medical complication during pregnancy is one of the leading causes of death and the mortality for newborns is 50% higher amongst this group. Although legislation specifically outlaws marriage under the age of 18 in Kenya, many marriages are performed under customary or Islamic law, which sets no minimum age. A high prevalence of HIV in Kenya means that young married girls are particularly at risk.

CES Canada has a Gender Equity policy where a minimum 50% of secondary scholarships are offered to girls. CES is also engaged in the betterment of education in six all girl secondary schools. CES provides a role model to schools that prioritizes young women.

Empowering girls is an area that CES Canada deems to be essential. During the past decade, CES female scholars have done well. Of the nearly 750 scholarships offered to girls, only 12 have dropped out. Of these, three were for pregnancies, two others were health related and one was a young girl whose family pressured her to marry before completing secondary school. The rest left school due to poor grades. On the bright side, female CES graduates are finding their place in post-secondary studies and there is every reason to believe they will be equal to or better than their male counterparts.

Post-script: GLOBALLY, THE PRACTICE IS DECLINING, ESPECIALLY MARRIAGE OF GIRLS UNDER 15: In 1985, 33% of women aged 20-24 were married before 18; in 2010 it was 26%. However, in real terms, the numbers are going up with increasing population – and will continue to do so without ACCELERATED progress. (RCS 2015)