Chiefs in Trans Nzoia urged not to preside over defilement

Endebess Deputy County Commissioner Peter Maina addressing residents of Trans Nzoia during Jamhuri Day celebrations at Chepchoina on December 12, 2016. PHOTO | PHILIP BWAYO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • According to the administrator a section of the chiefs have been soliciting for funds from perpetrators of sexual violence.

  • Meanwhile, children officials in the region have warned parents in the area against marrying off their underage girls for material or financial gain.

Local provincial administrators in Endebess sub-county have been cautioned against presiding over cases of sexual defilement among teenage girls and advised to leave the matter to courts of law.

Trans Nzoia Deputy County Commissioner Peter Maina said a section of chiefs in the region were mediating between perpetrators of the vice and parents of the victims.

“Any chief or even police officer who will preside over any case of sexual defilement will face punitive measures because that is killing justice,” Mr Maina said.

According to the administrator a section of the chiefs have been soliciting for funds from perpetrators of sexual violence.

Meanwhile, children officials in the region have warned parents in the area against marrying off their underage girls for material or financial gain.

The county’s children coordinator Esther Wasige said a section of parents in the region were marrying off their girls with the most affected being victims of early pregnancies.

“We are alarmed with cases of child labour, early marriages and sexual defilement which are rampant in Kwanza Sub-County where most of them are challenged in accessing primary schools education,” said Ms Wasige in Kitale.

She noted that most of the children were being married off at the age of fourteen years with their parents being compromised owing to high poverty levels in the region.