Laikipia Governor Joshua Irungu promises cattle reward for parents who educate girls

hoParents who take their daughters through school in Laikipia County will be rewarded with cattle.

Governor Joshua Irungu said early marriages among pastoral communities denied girls their right to education.

“We are ready to give the incentive as a way of fighting child marriages.

If we have to give cattle to fathers to stop them from marrying off their young daughters, then we might as well start doing just that,” Mr Irungu said at Waso Market.

He was responding to remarks by local leaders that poverty was fuelling child marriages in the county.

Women have also accused their husbands of forcing their daughters into marriages in exchange for livestock.

They asked the governor to help ensure girls were protected from early marriages.

Mr Irungu noted that though basic education was mandatory for all children in Kenya, many girls in the area were still dropping out of school to be married off.

Among the Maasai, a father gets nine head of cattle as bride price for every daughter married off — a burden Mr Irungu says his administration was ready to shoulder.

However, a member of the county assembly, Mr Michael Kinyua, criticised the plan, arguing that parents have an obligation to educate all their children without discrimination.

He urged Laikipia residents to change their attitude towards the education of girls.