Introduction

The steering committee had previously suggested that in Migori County – where life, culture and identity revolve around agriculture – modern slavery often focuses on the exploitation of subsistence farming families by large companies. They also commented on the mistreatment of local labour by  landowners who pay very low wages with no regards to the health, welfare or rights of their workforce because they know the workers are desperate and possess little power to do anything about it.

The previous project planning meeting suggested that women and children suffered most from modern slavery – citing forced and under-aged marriages; child and forced labour on farms, sugar plantations, gold mines, domestic service and fishing industry as being among the worst examples of this phenomenon. This page presents the views of the broader community by reporting the thoughts of participants in 3 community conversations facilitated in January, 2019. The first meeting was held at the Chief’s Offices at Cham gi wadu.

Cham gi wadu community in conversation

The meeting was attended by the community radio steering group, as then was, representatives of various community groups from Cham gi Wadu and students and staff from Rongo University and the University of Brighton. After traditional tribal welcomes from the Chief and community members, a response to the greetings and some contextualisation of the project were given by the Co-Investigators. The community conversation commenced by considering the following question.

What does modern day slavery mean to you?

The participating interlocutors identified exploitation as the main charaterstic of modern slavery and then continued to contextualise modern slavery into 4 categories of exploitation.

1. Exploitation of subsistence farmers       Individual small land owners, who grow and sell crops, are often exploited by middlepersons. They do none of the work needed to grow the produce but buy the crops, often for a trivial amount, and then proceed to sell the goods for a greater value. This leaves the community no better off than they were to begin with, despite all their efforts in sewing, nurturing and then harveting the crops.
2. Exploitation by foreigners, outsiders or wealthy locals                                                                  People who purchase land and exploit locals who need work to feed their families. Working them long hours for little pay. These people are often called, ‘Slave Masters’.
3. Social and economic exploitation                                                                                                                  Participants felt that modern slavery comes in a range of forms – these include: early marriage; child labour; wife inheritance, landlessness and female genital mutilation.
4. Women & children                                                                                                                                                  It was agreed that women and children are often the most exploited.

What is forced marriage and why may it happen?

The meeting defined this as early marriage, although it was also confirmed that this happens to adult women also. It was determined that early marriage occurs when someone 17 or younger is married. It was also agreed that because they are still children, they are incapable of knowing what is best for them and therefore, they are being forced, co-erced or duped into early marriage and that this is not in their best interests. It was suggested that there are many reasons why someone underage may enter marriage but by far the most cited contributing factor was poverty.

Children, it was reasoned, may be convinced by appearances of wealth, especially when unable to pay school fees. School fees were listed as a significant barrier to educating children living in poverty. Many children often drop out of school in order to find casual labour for reasons of subsistence. Others remain in school but miss lessons and or exams in order to find paid casual work in order to pay school fees.  This was the first time that both the education system in Kenya and child labour were identified as contributing to early marriage. Young girls especially were seen to be vulnerable to older men seeking to take a young girl as a ‘wife’, often in a polygamous marriage. Some older women, often aunties, were also cited as posing dangers to vulnerable young girls as they seek to broker such marriages for their male family members.

The trappings of wealth need not be much to be compelling to those living in poverty and without hope for the future. A regular but small payment to pay for food for the family; or to buy clothes for the girl; or even to cater for a basic human need such as sanitary towels might be all that it takes. To the vulnerable and those in need of security, small gestures of kindness and/or promises of a brighter future can be compelling enough to pursuade a malleable mind that the would be exploiter is genuine and has real feelings for them.

More often than not the truth is that the young person is being duped into some form of sexual or domestic labour exploitation, or worse – both.  Subsequent punishment for non-compliance contrasts markedly to the honeyed words prior to the ‘marriage’. Children may genuinely believe that they ‘want’ to get married as it provides a solution to the daunting challenges creates for them at home. In essence, children run away from  problems of poverty at home but often fall headlong into much worse in their new lives. Fleeing from domestic violence, sexual abuse, homelessness or simply needing a safe place to stay also makes children vulnerable to false promises made by older exploiters in return for their agreement to early marriage.

The separation of parents or the death of one or both parents often leads to the perception that children lack necessary support systems in the family. This can be true. Sometimes parents have no time and/or resources to look after their children. The neglect the child experiences may force them to run, or in some circumstances result in the parents selling the child, to a ‘suitor’. Such ‘suitors’ are usually much older men seeking to exploit the children. Interestingly, it was also suggested that the media may also influence children into early marriage. It was argued, with behavioural examples cited, that idealised representations of marriage often leads to unrealistic expectations of love, relationships and what they see on screen, to be better lives.

It was also argued that early marriage negatively affects the future of children. Often when people get married underage, they lose their freewill, drop out of education and lose the opportunity to fulfil their potential. The final pont made in this part of the conversation was that poor Government planning and lack of interventions also contribute to modern slavery. This is something that will be revisted later in these discussions.

What is child/forced labour?

Because the discussion surrounding early marriage ran over time and also included many of the issues relating to child labour, the discussion on the topic was limited. This does lead to something that Assistant Chief, the Village Elders and the Community Health Workers were to identify in their interviews (see Stories from the Community drop down menu). That is to say that early marriage and child labour are often inextricably linked in a downward spiral of poverty.

The community representatives defined child labour as labour done by anyone who is underage and is forced to work. Ostensibly for money but often payment is not forthcoming. Child labour is often done against the will of the children and is undertaken for a variety of causal factors – almost all of which can be related to poverty. This could be parents forcing children to go and earn money (poverty), orphaned children working for very little pay simply in order to feed their siblings, children undertaking casual labour to pay school fees and in many cases young girls working so they can buy sanitary towels/pads.

Summary

The lively conversation concluded with people listing the issues they associated most with early marriage and child labour. Way out in front came the causal factor of poverty, followed by mistaken hopes for a brighter future, running away from domestic violence and sexual abuse, sexual predation, familial deaths, insecurity and vulnerability. In addition, outdated tribal customs were also listed as reasons why people often end up in conditions of exploitation and therefore modern slavery. One such example  was cited as female genital mutilation. FGM is rarely identified as part of the modern slavery discourse but there were strong feelings among a number of community participants that it should be.

Community conversation at Omware Mixed Secondary School with faculty staff

Due to unforeseen circumstances. the Headteacher was unable to be with us for this event. We met with school staff where, after traditional greetings, a Co-I introduced the project and gave an overview on Modern Day Slavery and the previous discussions at Cham gi wadu. Staff members of Omware School staff agreed that slavery still exists in our society and that they wanted to try to eradicate it. They offered 100% support and the PI discussed the project with them in further detail, highlighting ways in which the children might contribute to the project.

It was agreed that the school should participate in the project and that the children could contribute through participatory performances of art, dance, poetry, skits and sketches that tell stories of modern slavery. It was also agreed that the School’s lournalism, music, dance and drama clubs could provide extracurricular examples of how the students might contribute to the project. The agreed purpose of these curricular and extra-curricular activities is that these artistic methods can be employed to boost learning among pupils, whilst raising awareness of modern slavery in the community and advocate for change.

These matters were to be discussed further in another meeting, when the Headteacher was present. Unfortunately, the COVID19 pandemic and  lockdown restricted our plans for this. It is our intention through CM4K to support this collaboration when it is safe to do so. This will be beyond the project life-cycle and will require funding – see the Conclusion menu for more on this.

Community conversation – Women’s Group Meeting

From Omware Secondary School, we moved on to the Market fields at Oyora to meet representatives from the many women’s groups in the sub-location. These groups are informal self-help groups, in which members contribute an agreed monthly/ weekly sum of money with the aim of helping each other grow economically. They put their money together and take it in turns to spend the money on household items or come together to help each other till and harvest their crops. They are very similar to co-operative initiatives in the UK.

The meeting began with Janet (the head of the women’s group network) briefing everyone about the project in the local language of Dholuo. After this, one of the local women from the group offered a prayer for all in attendance. She then inquired if the visitors (our group) had been welcomed? Introductions followed in which each member of the women’s group stated their names. Isabel, our Co-I, then introduced herself and each of our team, stating that, “we work with you, as you are our people.”

After the introductions, Jane (a social worker) led the conversations, by introducing the concept of modern slavery. The topic turned to forced marriage, especially early marriage. The local women started to speak and collectively agreed that forced marriage is bad. One member stated that it’s especially bad if the husband dies and the woman is widowed and in a worse predicament than before the forced marriage took place. Below are further statements from the women’s group and their opinions and thoughts relating to forced marriage:

Forced Marriage

Interestingly, the women’s group representatives expanded on the previous community conversations by adding further insights into the problems of early marriage. They agreed that it is bad for young girls. They explained how young girls, discovering themselves in totally alien environments and living with people not known to them, find their new lives unhappy and difficult. The marriage starts to break apart. Early marriages often lead to early pregnancy in young girls, who are little more than children themselves. They are unable to provide their babies with the care and nurturing they require and yet are expected to cope by the ‘foreign’ people they are living with. The traumas they often face through such early marriages can have a marked effect on the behaviour of these young girls who often find themselves in various degrees of trouble.

The conversations acknowledged that early marriages are not always the idea of the young girls involved. Indeed, the marriage is often driven by others with influence over the girls. These influencers are often men (usually older but sometimes male agemates – i.e. children themselves) with promises of a brighter future. However, they can be and often are older females seeking to broker an arrangement for their own purposes.

Another point raised was that girls often run away to avoid arranged early marriages and that this usually creates a situation whereby the girl jumps from the pan of early marriage into the fire of extreme poverty. The difficulties facing young girls who find themselves pregnant and facing familial and/or peer stigma. Often such young girls either run away or get married and find themselves facing a whole new set of challenges.

After the discussion surrounding forced marriage took place, Jane introduce the topic of forced labour and asked the women to share their views. Below are points from the discussion:

Child Labour

The women started by condemning child labour as a bad pratice. The women agreed that child labour forces children to miss out on their childhood and that their development as humans and as citizens suffers as a consequence.

It was acknowledged that child labour continues to happen because, in many ways, it is necessary for some people’s survival, i.e. there is a causal link to poverty and as such this labour is forced by economic necessity. For example, runaways in desperate need of money for survival may not be able to find other work. Casual labour is the only way they are able to make money and this creates a demand for others to exploit. Furthermore, child labour is very cheap and so a demand among people willing to exploit it is there. In this way the vicious circle continues.

Child labour was discussed in the context of parenting and parental responsibilities. Parents sometimes pressure their children into work as the family needs more income simply to survive. Here it child labour is brought about by the need for survival. Other parents may not be able to maintain their children, e.g. school fees, clothing, so they force them to seek work. In both instances, poverty is the direct cause of child labour. An addititional reason for child labour was also considered. Some parents, it was suggested, are simply poor parents and pressure their children to work simply to gain extra money, regardless of the damage it does to the educational development of the children. In these instance, money is what motivates.

It was also advised that casual labour, often leads to people contracting contact diseases or sustaining injuries from which they can and do die from as they are not paid enough money for medical treatment. in the context of forced labour, it was proposed that death and loss of lives is often the cost of poverty in the area.

After the discussion around child labour, Jane suggested that it is a lack of awareness that causes these issues and emphasised that the radio station, the CM4K partnership is working on, will help build and raise awareness and can be used to tackle such issues. She then raised the issue of FGM (female genital mutilation).

FGM (female genital mutilation)

Whilst not practiced by many Luo people, it was observed that FGM is a common practice within the neighbouring Kissi tribe. However, some Kissi do not like what the women go through and will come to the Luo people as the Luo usually do not practice FGM. Earlier discussions on FGM had considered FGM both as a cultural right of practice from girl to woman, as well as an exploitative practice of power exercion by men on women. This exercise in reducing the sexual sensitivity of women has, overtime, become normalised and accepted as tribal culture and tradition. Indeed, it was noted during this conversation that some Kissi men do not like women who have not had FGM and believe that they are not a real woman. A woman who refuses to accept clitoral cutting often face stigma in their community. However, it was also noted that other Kissi men prefer uncircumcised women. They regard an uncircumcised vagina to be more attractive and often go to the Luo people.

After the discussion about FGM, Jane reiterated the importance of the radio and how it can help raise awareness of these and many more issues. She suggested that issues and problems in the community are not effectively communicated resulting in a lack of awareness and understanding. The community radio station, Jane argued, can help with health issues and can inform communities about where they can find help.

After this, Jerry took a moment to thank everyone and praised them for how well they had done in embracing these conversations. He thanked them for expressing their honest opinions. He pointed to some of some of his students who, still attend classes at University, even though they have children. He urged the women not to give away their daughters to arranged early marriages if their children get pregnant. Or to force them into child labour – “if your children want to study, let them, release them to go and grow – not work for you. We need to connect communities, so they can share information and support each other to deal with such issues. If you’re struggling, do not get used to it, find ways to help each other. Do not give up on your child just because your child gets pregnant early, do not give them away”. Jerry then continued by promoting community networking and encouraged the women not to close themselves off.

Jane concluded the conversations by opining that “development will come from the radio station”. Another prayer was offered before a final vote of thanks.

A note of acknowledgement and thanks to Luca M Bilverstone for his assiduous note taking during these conversations. A former student of mine at the University of Brighton, Luca came with on 2 different CM4K student exchange trips. In 2018 as an undergraduate and again in 2019, at the start of this project, as a post-grad. His contributions are greatly appreciated.

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Conversations with Migori County Children’s services

Introduction

We discuss our relationship with Migori County Children’s Services in the About Us section of the introductory pages of this blog. Although their ultimate contribution was limited, eventually, to meetings and information sharing, those contributions were nonetheless significant and appreciated.

Meetings with Migori County Child Services

Meeting 1

It was during our first meeting with several staff from Children’s Services that we explained how community members had identified the FGM practiced in certain neighbouring communities as modern slavery. The Service Co-ordinator, Mr. John Odinya, confirmed that they know of many cases where it could be regarded as such. He continued by explaining that children born out of marriage (especially girls) often lived in appalling conditions and were vulnerable to exploitation, especially sexual exploitation. He cited this as another example of modern slavery, stating that such girls are susceptible to sex exploitation through;

1. Fear of being poor.
2. Fear of being illiterate (many are)
3. FGM, where spirits are evoked by the Council of Elders during the rite of passage. The performance, we were told, binds girls as pawns for early marriage. During the performance, they are warned of bad omen befalling them if they do not adhere strictly to the instructions given by the Council ofEelders during circumcision day.

Children’s Services staff felt that by recording community stories our research will provide volumes of data to analyze by finding identifiable links to modern slavery. They explained that their case categories are numerous and that we must choose the ones to focus on – this we did in discussion with community participants who identified a typology of of modern slavery known to them in their communities. John requested that our research activity should also try to suggest approaches that can provide transformative impact upon those affected – see conclusion.

Meeting 2

It was at this meeting that we learnt that several studies had been conducted and data generated with regard to incidences of child labour and child marriage in Migori County. The reults, it was explained, point to Nyatike is an epicenter of child labour and child marriage due to ongoing gold mining activities in the Macalder, Osiri and Muhuru Bay sites. Other factors that encourage modern slavery were identified as socio-economic in nature, and include high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, high levels of poverty, low levels of literacy, and child neglect. Fishing in Muhuru, and sand harvesting in Muhuru and Lwanda Konyango showed correlations to modern slavery. We were also told that the office continues to receive reports and data on prevalence of child labour in the Suna West Sub-County due to a thriving sand harvesting and mining business where miners and traders obtain cheap labour from children who drop out of school due to poverty, HIV/AIDS, being orphaned or abandoned by parents.

Both child marriage and child labour cases were reported to be rampant in Suna West sub-county due to the cultural practice of Female Genital Mutilation, which is illegal in Kenya and deemed undesirable by more Kenyans. According to the co-ordinator for Suna West, any girl who undergoes FGM is culturally considered an adult, and a potential candidate for marriage even when the victim is as young as 9 years. Victims of FGM become vulnerable to early marriage, early pregnancy and abuse by spouses often much older than them. The FGM and child marriage nexus provided us insights into modern day slavery that were unknown to us before the start of the project. In Rongo and Awendo Sub-Counties, Gold mining activities in Kitere and Kawango as well as sugarcane farming in Awendo region are believed to be the main causes of child slavery.

Other factors attributed to modern day slavery, especially child marriage and child labour include cultural practices such as wife compensation to a widower; the boda boda (motor bike taxis) phenomenon where young school drop-outs resort to the boba boda taxi business and use their daily cash proceeds to lure underaged girls into unprotected sex, which in turn cause child pregnancy and leads to child marriage.

The office of the County Coordinator of Children’s Affairs confirmed that in the project year 2017/2018, the following cases, which are related to modern day slavery, were reported and attended to:

• Child custody disputes – 1,306
• Child maintenance – 2,076
• Child neglect – 2,291
• Disputes over parenting and care – 41

Meeting 3

During this meeting the COVID19 pandemic had gotten a real hold and had slowed down activities and research in the area of modern slavery generally significantly. The pandemic was also posing new challenges to principal actors in both government and non-government in the Human Rights sector – so much so that our plans to work with them in the field, through the Migori County Children’s Services, were no longer possible.

Our colleagues from Children’s Services were keen to continue working with the project and assist us realize the project’s aims and objectives. It was just proving impossible for them to find the time and resources under the pandemic.

It was suggested, probably somewhat unrealistically at the time, that the project should target the modern slavery  hot spots (identified in the previous meetinf) such as the Osiri gold mines, Kuria East and West (sand harvesting, gold mining and FGM), North Kamagambo (gold mining), Osiri in Macalader (gold mining), Muhuru and Sori (fishing), Kitere (gold mining). It was noted that the Children’s Services Department possessed an elaborate and effective network to provide support to the AKN research team during face-to-face meetings. The Department saw the value of the research and were keen to co-operate with the research team to help with identifying survivors and making arrangements for interviews and safety of the research team.

Although this meeting was to prove the last possible during the pandemic, a number of points were shared which are worthy of note here.

1. FGM was becoming more problematic to tackle because it was no longer only a cultural issues. It has become a  commercial practice and there are many individuals that benefit financially as a result of the practice (Parsitau, 2018). It was further noted that the President of Kenya had established a national task force to spearhead the fight against FGM.
2. The  COVID19 pandemic has rendered over 1.9 million Kenya’s jobless. This scenario has contributed to escalating cases of child labour and early marriage.
3. The meeting observed the alarming cases of teenage pregnancies in the country as a result of shut down of schools during the pandemic – a factor that has put thousands of children at risk of early marriage.