Women charged for attempting to marry off a 15-year-old girl in Eastleigh

Image result for Two women arrested for attempting to marry off a 15-year-old girl in Eastleigh on Sunday images

Two women arrested for attempting to marry off a 15-year-old girl in Eastleigh on Sunday were on Monday charged in a Makadara court.

The two women were charged with subjecting a minor to a forced marriage. They, however, denied the charges and were released on bail.

The women are said to be relatives of the girl rescued by activists and a citizen TV crew hours before she was to be driven to Nakuru to meet her suitor.

Image result for Two women arrested for attempting to marry off a 15-year-old girl in Eastleigh on Sunday images

When the Citizen TV team arrived on 12th Street, Eastleigh in Nairobi, they embarked on a search for a building where they had been informed that the 15-year-old bride was having her last minute preparations before traveling to Nakuru to meet her new “husband”.

The child bride had recently traveled from Mandera County where she schooled to Nairobi.

She sat her KCPE exams this year scoring 313 marks and even though she was hopeful of proceeding to secondary school, her parents were thinking otherwise.

Image result for Two women arrested for attempting to marry off a 15-year-old girl in Eastleigh on Sunday images

A husband had been chosen for her in Nakuru and unfortunately, the official wedding, the Nikkah (religious ceremony), had already been done and what was remaining was to start her forced marriage.

“I got an anonymous call of a child who was being forced into marriage, she was not willing to but her parents were insistent,” said human rights activist Fatma Mohammed.

The child bride was later set free after police from Pangani police station raided the salon and foiled attempts to secretly ship the girl to Nakuru.

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