A 44-year old woman, who can not be named to protect the identity of her minor daughter became one of the first people to be convicted for marrying off a minor. The Constitutional Court banned child marriages last year. The mother was charged with pledging a minor into marriage.
According to the prosecutor, Ms Nyengeterai Nechirava, the mother forced her daughter into a marriage with Jelias Nyika (40), despite her protests.
That same night at around 10PM, she packed the complainant’s clothes and took her to Nyika’s homestead before he had sexual intercourse with her that very night while she stood guard at the bedroom hut door.
However, the forced marriage only lasted for a day after the complainant’s grandmother found out and reported the matter to the police.
In mitigation the mother said she was looking for someone to look after her daughter as she was dying:
I’m of ill health. I’ve continuous headaches and so I thought I would die and my child would have no one to look after her. When he married her, she was in school and had promised to further her education.
Shurugwi resident magistrate Mrs Evia Matura sentenced the mother to 5 months in prison.
The man, Nyika, was convicted on his own pleas of guilty. He was sentenced by Mrs Matura to 24 months in prison for having sex with a minor. 6 moths were suspended.
More: Chronicle
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