13/10/2026
TRIGGER WARNING - Discusses FGM and Child Marriage - child sexual and physical abuse.
When out in Kenya recently, we stayed at the Girl Child Rescue Centre in Samburu. It is home for over 100 girls rescued from FGM and early child marriage. Despite being illegal in Kenya, it is still widely practiced amongst nomadic tribal families. The bravery of the girls at the rescue centre astounds me every time. It’s not a sad place but one where girls are empowered as survivors and some go on to speak out publicly against the practice. They want to share their stories with the world, in the hope to educate and help other girls in the future to avoid the suffering that they have endured.
One such child, we will call Child S to protect her safety and privacy, is a survivor of FGM and Child Marriage. We took Child S on a day out with us, and she is a truly remarkable young woman. In this letter, she recounts her story as an 8 year old girl - undergoing FGM, being sold into marriage as the fourth wife to a 40 year old man for a sum of 4 cows, 2 goats, sacks of sugar and some blankets. Then finally her escape and her rescue. Now 17 years old, she excels at school and hopes to go to university to study to be a lecturer.
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Child S’s letter transcribed for ease of reading.
My name is [blacked out] I am seventeen years old, I come from [blacked out] centre, in Samburu. I school at [blacked out] High school in [blacked out] - Kenya. I am in form Three. The main reason as to why I came to the centre is that my uncles had decided to give me off for marriage to an old man, I guess of about forty years. By then, I was very young and the main duty that I performed, was looking after the livestock. One day, when I had gone to graze the camels, two men approached me in the forest and asked me some questions whether I could do any other work, other than grazing. Not knowing that they had been sent to me by my uncles, I disclosed everything to them.
There came a day when I had gone to look after the sheep, because this task of grazing the animals was alternatively done, when I came back in the evening, I found the same two men who had come for me in the forest, at my mother’s house. There were two sacks of sugar. Trying to inquire what all that sugar was for, my mother told me that she also did not know because in my community, women are not involved in decision making. Days went by and the same men came back, now being many with some four cows, 2 sheep, sugar and blankets for my father. This was a clear indication that I had been given for marriage. That some day, women came bringing water and firewood. My father and other elderly men were cutting the animal skin to get some shoes for me. Within the same evening a certain lady shaved me and a red substance was applied on my bald head. A lot of celebrations and singing were there. My mother, full of tears in her eyes came advising me to obey the man so that I could not live the life she had been living with my father, full of beating and quarrels. When the following morning came, a certain lady with red eyes and long nails, was brought to do me the Female ge***al Mutilation. This was so stressful because they were interfering with God’s creation and I also feared disease like HIV/AIDS. Immediately after the cut, the old men came, blessed me and the husband to be. I wore an animal skin which had been applied the red ocre and carried a gourd full of milk on my back. The pain of the cut could not allow me to walk and this man lived very far. Vehicles could not be used because marrying off a small girl was illegal, so they feared arrest. I cried and cried until we arrived the man’s home. Upon arrival, I found out that this man had already married three other wives, so I was to be the fourth. Life in this place was so cruel because, there other women kept shouting at me and also this man started violating and beating me. The man expected me to provide for the family yet I had no any business. One day, I woke up very early because I was tired of living such life, and planned to just go and God would help me. I started my journey, one foot, and came to a town called Maralal, where I found someone wearing a beret and carried a scepter. The man could not understand me because I only spoke mother tongue. It happened that he called a certain woman who was passing by. The woman understood my language, so she explained what I was trying to say. Immediately, this policeman took me to the Police station, gave me something to eat since I was hungry and on the same day, brought me to the sisters of Mary Immaculate. I had not fully healed from the cut, but the sisters took care of me, took me to school, I started grade one in the year 2017, and right now am in Form Three. I thank the Almighty for this far he has brought me and for helping me escape the harmful cultural practices of our community. I would like to become a lecturer when I finish school, go back to my community and teach them that those cultural practices that traumatize children, especially girl child, have been passed by time.
