"Stop Sexual Enslavement Of Young Girls Among Kenyan Pastoralists"- NGO

A young Pokot girl is held by a member of her community as she tries to escape a forced marriage, unaware of the arrangements her father had made. Photo/REUTERS

Among people of northern Kenyan communities, it is a common practice to 'book' a young girl for sex by simply giving her a bead.

See the report from the-star.co.ke below:

In a tradition known as "beading", men from the Samburu and Rendille communities give young girls large red bead necklaces that effectively books them for sex, said Josephine Kulea who runs the Samburu Girls Foundation to rescue girls at risk. 

Girls are usually aged 8 to 12 when they are beaded and taken out of school, she said. If they become pregnant they are often forced to have abortions, risking their lives and fertility. Any babies are taken away and even killed."It's wrong, it's evil. The girls have no choice. It's sexual enslavement and a violation of the child's rights," said Kulea on the sidelines of the Trust Women conference on women's rights and trafficking run by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. 

"Some girls when they refuse to accept the necklace are beaten up. Some girls die during crude abortions," added Kulea, 30, who has received death threats for her work to end beading, child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM).Although FGM is illegal in Kenya, it is almost universal among the Samburu community who see it as a pre-requisite for marriage. Early marriage is also common. 

Kulea, whose work was praised by US President Barack Obama during a visit to Kenya in July, said her foundation had rescued 1,000 girls since 2012 and put them in boarding schools around the country. Her dream is to build her own school.

Source: the-star.co.ke