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International News Title: In Bad Times, Girls Become Financial Assets SILALI, Kenya — Soitanae Ole Kyoiogo watched helplessly as his treasured cows dropped dead in the drought, one after another, until only two survived from a herd of 50. Desperate to feed his family, he turned to the only source of wealth he had left: his daughters, ages 8 and 9. The 47-year-old Masai father arranged to marry the girls to a pair of local men in exchange for three cows per child, plus some blankets and cash. ADVERTISEMENT It's one of the saddest side effects so far of an East African drought that has killed dozens and is threatening millions more with hunger. Child welfare advocates in Kenya report a sharp rise in forced early marriages, particularly among Masai families looking to replace lost livestock. A growing number of fathers in this southern Kenya countryside are trading their daughters' futures for bridal dowries. "Because of the drought, my father wasn't even going to wait for me to grow up," said Timpian Soitanae, 9. "He was going to give me away." The girls' mother, who is separated from Soitanae, foiled the secret plan with the help of a villager by alerting authorities and tribal chiefs, Kenya officials say. Police arrested Soitanae in December, long enough to remove the girls from his mud-hut compound and take them to a rescue center 20 miles away. The detention came three days before he allegedly planned to have the girls undergo genital excision, a precursor to marriage. Timpian and her sister, Suya, giggled and buried their faces in their hands at the mere mention of marriage or boys. "I'm still too young," Suya laughed, covering an embarrassed smile with her doll-sized fingers. Dressed alike in too-big green school uniforms, the girls could almost be twins. They've enrolled in first grade at an adjacent primary school and at night share the upper mattress of a bunk bed. Both say they don't want to return home and express a sense of betrayal by their father. "I don't love him as much as before," Timpian said. Scanning the barren land around his home, the father denied any marriage plans, saying his ex-wife made up the story. "I'm just trying to feed my family," he said. Food has been so scarce that he, his two other wives and 10 children survive on government-donated maize. The fields around the family's home are littered with rotting carcasses of cows, goats and donkeys. They skin the dead animals and sell the pelts for $1.50 apiece. Soitanae also earns $70 a month as a night watchman in town. But it was the cows that sustained the family, providing milk, meat and even blood for nourishment. "To us, the cows are everything," he said. In Masai culture, a man's esteem and identity are measured by the number of cows he owns. Kenyan law prohibits anyone from marrying before age 18, even with parental consent, and outlaws female genital excision, an African tradition meant to symbolize a girl's transition to womanhood. The procedure, also known as female circumcision, entails cutting away part of the girl's sexual organ. It is painful and medically risky. Despite the law, both early marriage and female genital excision are still widely practiced, particularly among tribes such as the Masai, whose pastoral lifestyle sometimes keeps them out of the government's reach. Child advocates say they began to note an increasing number of underage brides when livestock began dying last fall. Although drought has plagued East Africa for years, the failure of December rains and predictions that April showers will fall short has put more than 6 million people at risk in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and other countries. Humanitarian groups predict disaster if emergency food supplies do not reach the region by spring. Child advocate Prisilla Naisult Nangurai measures the desperation by the age of the girls she has been rescuing.
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