Parents trading daughters for cows in Lira markets

Lira District chairman Alex Oremo. FILE PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • Vice. Girls as young as 15 years are picked from schools by their parents and relatives then they are “sold” to prospective husbands in exchange for a few cows and goats as bride price.
  • "Parents are taking away their daughters from school and forcing them into marriage yet some of these girls are very young. Can you imagine even girls as young as those in Primary Five are being married off yet they are too young to be mothers and housewives,” Joel Otwal, Walela Primary School head teacher.

LIRA. Aromo Sub-county is known for being Lira’s food basket due to its fertile soils, growing most of the food which is sold in Lira and other neigbhouring districts.

On the other hand, the police say the sub-county is also known for registering high cases of murder, livestock theft, alcoholism, domestic violence and other criminal activities. And of late, parents and guardians are said to be exchanging young school-going girls for cows at local markets.

Reports indicate that girls as young as 15 years are picked from schools by their parents and relatives then they are “sold” to prospective husbands at open-air markets in exchange for a few cows and goats as bride price. Most of the victims are young girls who sat for Primary Leaving Examinations last year.

Some of the known markets where parents are allegedly exchanging their daughters for cows include Aswa market situated near Aswa River in Apuce Parish at the border between Lira and Pader districts at Aromo Trading Centre where Aromo auction market operates every last Friday of the month.

Aswa open-air market takes place every Tuesday. Other local markets where girls are traded for cows are Wanglobo, Corner Aye in and Tik-ngo Okeli market.
In these markets, the girls’ parents reportedly negotiate with the parents of the boys on the number of cows that should be paid as bride price. This is done out of fear that conducting marriage ceremonies at their homes may attract the attention of the local leaders and neigbhours that would halt such marriages of underage girls.

The parents of the girls take their daughters to the local markets where the boys’ parents have gone to transact after prior arrangements; then the men give away their daughters to the boy (husband) at the market. They return to their homes with the cows signalling the completion of marriage, according to local authorities.

The female youth councillor for Aromo Sub-county, Ms Vicky Angwech, says this practice is common in most of the parishes.
“A number of underage girls have been illegally married off by their parents without the notice of the local leaders because the giveaway ceremony takes place informally and sometimes they give away their daughters and later they claim that the girls have gone to visit distant relatives,” she says.

Often, parents send their daughter to the husband’s home and they wait for three months then arrange with the boy’s parents and set a day when they are going to meet at the local market to collect the bride price.
“That is when they collect the cows and take them to their home pretending that they have just bought them from the market,” Ms Angwech says.

She adds that four girls, who sat for PLE last year, were given away to men in exchange for cows. Two of them are already pregnant.
The LC3 councillor reveals that four other girls, who were pupils at Ayami Primary School, were married off during the third term holiday last year.
Two pupils of Ayile Primary School aged 15 and 16 years have also been married off and they are now pregnant, she adds.

The headmaster of Walela Primary School, Mr Joel Otwal, says 15 girls from his school, most of them in Primary Five and Primary Six, were taken away by their parents last year and married off.
He says parents remove their daughters from school pretending that they are taking them to learn tailoring at a relative’s home yet they have been married off.

“This is the biggest challenge I am facing. We have tried to talk to them on the importance of girl child education, but most of them are not bothered,” the head teacher says.
A resident of Ayile B Village in Walela Parish, Mr Geoffrey Elem, acknowledges that this practice is very common in the area “but most of them take place at the local markets,” he says.

The officer in-charge of Child and Family Protection Unit at Lira Central Police Station, Ms Mary Akao, says they have been hearing about such cases, but nobody has been arrested yet.

She says it is tricky since there are reports that these parents leave their daughters at one corner of the market or some distance away from the market then they go and negotiate.

“It is very difficult for us to arrest the suspects...you know the markets are always very crowded, but we encourage the local leaders to take the lead in fighting this practice,” she said.