Structural silence, exclusion, and access to justice: A case study of an indigenous girl in northern Kenya

Abstract

Even though child marriage is a human rights abuse, the practice persists in many developing countries. About 39,000 young girls are married each day amounting to 15.1 million a year. In the past, half of these cases have occurred in Asia, while a fifth in Africa. While this remains a major challenge, there are limited studies focusing on the attempts by the victims to free themselves. Therefore, this study sought to examine socio-cultural and institutional factors that hinder marginalized persons to access justice. This is a qualitative case study of an indigenous girl who disappeared while seeking to free herself from forced marriage. The study shows that: conflict between customary values and mainstream justice values; negligence on the side of the local provincial administration; lack of concern from society; and interrelationships between poverty and family as well as culture and wealth constitute part factors that hinder access to justice. The study suggests that to be able to address the problem of access to justice effectively; there is need to reduce inequalities by empowering local communities with alternative to justice mechanisms which take into account the transformation of indigenous knowledge in order to make it competent enough to advance the development needs of the marginalized people in a globalized.