‘If she gets married when she is young, she will give birth to many kids’: a qualitative study of child marriage practices amongst nomadic pastoralist communities in Kenya

Abstract

Child marriage is associated with adverse health and social outcomes for women and girls. Among pastoralists in Kenya, child marriage is believed to be higher compared to the national average. This paper explores how social norms and contextual factors sustain child marriage in communities living in conflict-affected North Eastern Kenya. In-depth interviews were carried out with nomadic and semi-nomadic women and men of reproductive age in Wajir and Mandera counties. Participants were purposively sampled across a range of age groups and community types. Interviews were analysed thematically and guided by a social norms approach. We found changes in the way young couples meet and evidence for negative perceptions of child marriage due to its impact on the girls’ reproductive health and gender inequality. Despite this, child marriage was common amongst nomadic and semi-nomadic women. Two overarching themes explained child marriage practices: 1) gender norms, and 2) desire for large family size. Our findings complement the global literature, while contributing perspectives of pastoralist groups. Contextual factors of poverty, traditional pastoral lifestyles and limited formal education opportunities for girls, supported large family norms and gender norms that encouraged and sustained child marriage.

Keywords:

• Child marriage
• early childbearing
• reproductive health
• gender norms

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the research participants who gave their time and shared their experiences. We also acknowledge the labour of the field interviewers who worked tirelessly, and at times in dangerous conditions, to collect data for this study. We acknowledge Save the Children International Kenya field staff members who contributed to data collection and interpretation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This article is an output from the Nomadic Health Project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. However, the views expressed, and information contained in the article are not necessarily those of, or endorsed by, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and do not necessarily reflect their official polices. Additional funding was received from the GCRF GJS Hub to support writing up the results.