In Marsabit, girls as young as 12 are traded for livestock as families fight starvation amid relentless drought.
In northern Kenya’s Marsabit region, a merciless drought is shattering lives. Four consecutive failed rainy seasons since 2020 have turned fields to dust and left 70% of people scrambling for food. For desperate pastoralist families, whose herds are dying by the day, a dark solution has emerged: marrying off daughters as young as 12 for up to 50 cows or $1,000 in cash. The numbers are climbing fast, with reports showing a 30% rise in these child marriages in 2024. It’s a brutal trade—girls yanked from classrooms, handed to older men, and thrust into early pregnancies, all so their families can eat.
Laws can’t keep up with hunger. Kenya banned child marriage over a decade ago, but in far-flung Marsabit, that’s just ink on paper. Tradition and survival outweigh everything else, and help is thin on the ground—food aid and cash handouts reach only a handful due to empty coffers. As climate change tightens its grip, drying out the land further, more girls are becoming bargaining chips. It’s a stark choice: a daughter’s future or a family’s next meal. For now, starvation is winning.
