The price of Education

By Waguma Judy

Margaret Nailantei now 17 remembers with nostalgia; how her parents separated in order to secure her education.

“My mother had to sacrifice her marriage and happiness, because she believed that girls also deserved a chance in education,” she says

Nailantei, a form three student at Ilbisisil secondary school, Kajiado district, says that, had it not been for her mother’s brave move, she would have already been married off.

She explains that, after undergoing her initiation rites, her father strongly felt that she was of the right age to get married.

“My life has been a very hard one since I was young, my father did not want me to go to school, but my mother worked very hard to educate me,” she says.

Following the completion of class eight, my dad did not want me to proceed with my education, she says; he wanted me to get married.

My mother refused and I had to repeat class seven and that when I joined Ilbissil girls.

During this time I read gifted hands, a book by Ben Carson, who has been an inspiration in my life, I almost recognize my life with his, and in future my dream is to become a neurosurgeon just like him.

Being a Maasai girl is very hard, in a culture where women are still viewed as slaves and young girls being married off at very tender ages.

We have to undergo circumcision, which according to me has no meaning at all in our lives, and also be married off to strangers without your consent.

Education is important, but it made my parents separate, but I do not regret it for one day, because I believe that a day is coming when I will be able to support my mother and our community.

Miriam Kaipason, 17 years old from Ilbissil girls, is of the same view as Naintaei, her dream is however to become a lawyer to be able to fight for the Masaai women, to get education and wipe off the FGM completely from the Maasai community.

Kaipason, says that she was circumsisded when she was just 13 years old. “It Was the most painful thins ever, it is my wish today that no other woman undergoes through this process ever again.

She is just one of the many Kenyan girls and women who have undergone female genital mutilation after the passage of the Children's Act law. Passed by Parliament in 2001, the Children's Act outlaws various forms of violation against children, including FGM, for females 18 and younger.

About 14 other countries in Africa have passed similar laws against FGM. Djibouti joined the group on Thursday by ratifying the African Union's Maputo Protocol on female genital mutilation, which requires its member states to ban the practice. But activists in Kenya--sometimes identified as a leader in the anti-FGM campaign--say the country still has a long way to go.

Elsewhere Charity Namunyok Paitah, a secretary in a local school in Kajiado disctrict, has her father to thank for her education. “Today I can reason with my father and tell him that I also need a piece of his land because I also have a right.

“What bothers me the most is that my age mates, girls I grew up with, today have over four children and walk after donkeys, fetch water and work like slaves while they are pregnant,” she says.

Young girls drop out of school after they go to this ceremonies, then they get scared to go back to school, after that they get married off, she says.

A woman in the massai land is still taken as a slave, a worker, a wife to the community, therefore she has to work extra hard to meet the family’s demands.

Pregnant mothers, due to their ignorance, fail to take their children to hospitals after giving birth, and end up getting polio and many other diseases that can be prevented.

Our leaders have failed us; since they are only concerned with their own issues but not the issue that affects the Maasai’s.

With basic education, the women can support the community, the standard of living will also change and people will slowly realize development in this area, as their minds would now be opened up, says Paitah.

Despite all this, Hellen Nkaissrey, the wife to the local Member of Parliament believes that another world is indeed possible for the maa community.

We are pastoralist, says Nkaissery, and we believe that it’s very beneficial, and the world should focus on it as an income.

We would wish our culture to be of value to us, and not act as a factor that demeans us instead.

Therefore we will push for policies to focus on indigenous communities to a certain level, and as money is disbursed, we would also demand for a fair share.
Education is important in our community, and the women should be given an ample opportunity to even the most basic education, because they are skillful.

Ends