By Terry Nzau
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 14- Tenderly clutching to your baby for the very first time is an experience any mother will tell you, they would not dare substitute for anything in this world.
Whispering in their ears affirmations of love while feeling the murmurs of their tiny beating heart. A beautiful reminder that life is indeed precious.
Awino, not her real name, will be marking her first-born baby’s second birthday on Sunday, but she has no plans to commemorate what should no doubt be a festive day.
She was thrust into motherhood at the age of 12 years. And unlike her fellow age mates she says, gone is when she could have experienced what it truly means to be a teenager. Making mistakes, learning and transitioning into adulthood.
Though many look forward to their birthday or that of their young children with utter excitement, celebrating new milestones in their lives, Awino says that the birthday of her child, is a dark day, a reminder of when she was almost stripped of her humanity. An epitaph of the day she was raped.
“At times when he just cries for no reason, I just leave him alone or we cry together,” said a teary Awino.
The third born in a family of seven children, buries her face in her hands and says that though putting into words what her life has become is close to impossible, her traumatic experience haunts her every single day.
It is however the constant judgemental glares from neigbours and friends, the almost silent whispers of what she went through behind her back, compounded by a harsh environment that makes it even more difficult to surmount her challenges.
We visit Awino at her mother’s house in Nairobi’s vast Kibra slum. Their modest single room, mud-thatched house has become home to her 2 year-old son too.
–Events leading to the fateful day–
Awino remembers the events of that fateful day like it was yesterday, 2 years ago,when one of her neigbours, a 72 year-old man lured her into what would be the worst day of her life. She was seated outside her home.
“There was no one else around. He asked me to go and buy for him airtime worth twenty shillings,” said Awino, who politely recalled she was brought up to respect the elderly in the society and had seen no issue with the small request.
She was just 12 years-old at the time.
Little did she know, this was a ploy by her would be attacker aimed at isolating her from prying eyes in order to commit the unthinkable.
“When I returned. I did not find him outside his house. He was inside the home. He requested me to just enter and handover the airtime,” at this point, memories of that fateful afternoon brings her to tears, as she temporarily cuts short our conversation.
After a short while, she perseveres through and speaks in a low pitched voice and says, “he held mouth and proceeded to do that thing to me (defile).”
Awino says that after the horrific incident, the 72 year-old man then threatened her if she dare spoke to anyone over what had just happened.
“He warned me that he would kill me if I told my parents or anyone what happened,”she said as tears flowed down her face. “I did not want to die. I just kept it to myself.”
-My mother thought I had started experiencing menstrual cycles-
Before anyone could see her,she gingerly headed home, disposed of her blood-soaked clothes and took a bath.
Through the pain and trauma, she hid what had happened to her and says, “I bled for 7 straight days.”
“My mother bought me pads. She told me I had started experiencing my monthly periods,” she narrated.
Weeks later, it was Awino’s teacher who first discovered what had just happened after learning that she was pregnant.
Her parents were shortly after notified and the matter reported to the area chief.
Authorities told Shahidi News that the perpetrator of the alleged crime shortly after went into hiding after learning his despicable secret had been discovered.
Two years later though she may not fully understand the intricacies of what life may offer at this point in time, she says she loves her child who she decided with the help of her loved ones to keep.
Since then, she has gone back to school to standard six, hoping that through education she will be able to change her life and that of her son.
Awino says she wants to pursue a career in one of the noblest profession, nursing, in order to, “be able to help other young girls like myself.”
Though she at times has thoughts of inadequacy and low self-esteem, she quotes a famous phrase and says that, “let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.”
Like Awino’s story, such incidents are all to familiar to members of this community.
Cases of early childhood pregnancies and HIV/AIDS infections are also said to be prevalent here.
Similar cases have been on the ascendancy across the country particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic struck the country in March, 2020.
“We have had a lot of cases of teens being pregnant since last year,” Luki Hamisi, a social worker in Kibera said.
“Most of these teens lose hope once they get pregnant. To them, it is the end of their lives but we are here to assure them that all is not lost.”
Hamisi says a whole generation of teen mothers are raising children alone as they themselves have been deprived of a decent childhood.
“Most of them need psychological support. Others have developed serious mental issues since they are being tormented in many ways,” she added.
While some are victims of defilement, she says there is an increasing number of children being exploited by their parents and guardians to seek odd jobs in order to earn a living and help sustain their families.
Some offenders of such crimes meanwhile are living amongst the community with authorities, she says, barely taking any action.
“The government must ensure our girls are safe and also support parents of these children who have fallen victim of these incidents…even providing food alone can help,” she says.
Last year, thousands of teenage girls became pregnant within the first three months of the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, as schools remained closed.
“The solution lies in teaching safe sex as soon as children are mature enough to know what sex is. Sex education should be introduced in grade 4 or 5,” Education Cabinet Secretary Prof. George Magoh said in 2021, amidst rising cases of teen pregnancies.
In March this year, Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr. Fred Matiang’i ordered the immediate arrest of adults responsible for teenage pregnancies in Trans Nzoia County.
Over 10,000 teenage girls were impregnated in Trans-Nzoia, which is the highest number in the country to have been recorded in a single county.
Little or nothing has since been done to implement the orders.
According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), nearly 378,400 adolescent girls in Kenya aged between 10 and 19 years became pregnant between July 2016 and June 2017.
A total of 28,932 girls aged between 10 and 14 years were impregnated, while 349,465 girls were between 15 to 19 years.
Terry Nzau is a Journalist Based in Nairobi, Kenya, a PhD Student, with passion of telling stories that will bring change to the society. She has more than a decade of experience.
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