Twelve school girls at Mteza primary school from Mbuguni location in Matuga Sub County of Kwale are reported to have left school for marriage.
Matuga Sub County Police Commander Ludwin Sassati said the girls are aged between the ages of 13 and 15 years.
Sassati said their parents were given dowry and consented to the arrangement that their daughters be taken away by their suitors. “It is such a shame that the parents allowed their school-going daughters to be married in exchange for money,” he said.
Sassati said three people are already in police custody over the matter. “We have already apprehended two parents and a teenager who was involved in marrying a young schoolgirl,” he said.
The police boss said the villagers had leaked information to him that the institution was recording a high number of students dropping out of school due to pregnancies and marriages.
“Some people came to my office and complained about how such vices were taking roots in the area destroying children’s future,” he said.
Sassati said investigations are ongoing to apprehend other culprits. He said the police are still waiting for medical reports to ascertain the girls’ ages.
“We are going to do what it takes to see that justice has been done. In the process, we have to make sure that both sides get equal rights without being unfair to either party. That is why we will have to get medical results from the experts to confirm if the said girls are below 18 years,” he said.
At the same time, Sassati warned parents against curtailing their daughters’ education by exposing them to primitive cultures. He said the law will catch-up with all perpetrators who defile school children.
The Mteza Primary school headteacher Chidanga Mwangolo Ruwa through a phone interview denied the allegations. He said currently he has no such a case in his school claiming it happened a long time ago.
“I am not aware of the accusations and if they (police) said that maybe it is in the past meaning those students are not here anymore. They dropped out and we have no clue of their whereabouts,” said Ruwa.