Government addresses child marriage concerns

Kengee Tjipo was just two-years-old when her Koakoland parents arranged for her to marry a 25-year-old man when she turns six. The Namibian reports that it is customary for Ovahimba families to arrange marriages for their young children. Her mother, Tueripura Matundu, said the groom's mother had asked for the union while she was still breast-feeding her. Kengee's mother-in-law is also her aunt, making the child and her ‘husband’ cousins. ‘Kengee will not be forced to sleep with her husband, if she does not want to,’ Matundu noted. The regional councillor for Kunene, Weich Mupya, said child marriages in the region have not been researched ‘because it is not a matter of public interest’. Ministry of Safety and Security official Rebecca Thomas said there were plans to eradicate child marriages by mobilising communities and conducting countrywide education campaigns ‘particularly for the girl child’.