10 Letters from Kibera
Letter 9
Being a teenage girl in Kibera
“I have even heard of families who have identified men who they regularly send their daughters as young as 9 to have sex with, in exchange for food or money.”
Being a girl in the slums isn’t easy since we face lots of challenges. One of the many challenges comes from our homes where we are regarded as objects and where a parent or guardian is often quite willing to sell their daughter to men for a packet of milk and a loaf of bread. Some are forced to do odd jobs to keep the family going.
Most of these girls are illiterate, and they dwell in poverty which forces them to engage in such activities. There is so much poverty and illiteracy within the slum that prostitution is no longer seen as a big deal. Neither is the use of contraceptives seen as a big issue since a lot of chemists sell them for about the equivalent of 10p and also do next day injections at a fair price. However when you are poor do you spend your money on food or contraception? Unfortunately STD’s don’t really exist in the minds of most people in the slums which is a problem in itself as these spread. Pregnancy is the big fear since nobody wants an extra mouth to feed.
Abortion appears as an option to poverty but is illegal in Kenya . There are a few specially licensed hospitals that are allowed to do it with a cost of a thousand shillings (£6.70) but since this is so expensive people use other means like drinking undiluted juice or taking a lot of tea leaves in their water which apparently can work. Once a girl gets pregnant she is often thrown out by her parents and will be forced to go live with the boyfriend. The boyfriend will then enjoy the benefits as if he had a wife, having freedom over the girl. He is able to do what he wants with her since the girl is already an outcast and has no where else to go.
Most of these girls will be young teenagers who dropped out of school due to poverty, peer pressure and even bad company. This is self-perpetuating as these teenage parents have children and so it goes with the street mentality and social behaviour which continues this cycle of poverty. I have even heard of families who have identified men who they regularly send their daughters as young as 9 to have sex with, in exchange for food or money. A mother will say to a child, ‘Go to so and so house and fetch some flour for us’, the child knows what this means. After the sex then the child will return home with the gift of food or cash. The matter is never discussed. Child prostitution goes on but everybody pretends it is not happening.
