Child Marriage among Maasai Girl Students in Tanzania: The Case of Kilosa District

This study explored the reasons for persistence of child marriage among Maasai girl-students in Tanzania. Three research questions guided this study, namely: Why does girl students’ marriage among the Maasai community of Tanzania continue to exist? What is the position of education stakeholders in protecting girls from child marriage? What strategies should be taken to address child marriage in the Maasai community? The study employed qualitative research approach where a case study design was used to explore the problem. It adopted interviews, focus group discussion and observations as research methods. Purposive and snowball sampling strategies were employed to get 39 participants who were involved in this study. Data were analysed qualitatively through thematic analysis strategies. The findings revealed that child marriage is still practiced in the Maasai community where the legible age for marriage of Maasai girls range from 6 to 15 years depending on the number of competing men and the economic status of the family of the boy or girl. Society members employ persuasion and pressure, transfer of students, pregnancy and corruption to enable marriage of Maasai girl students. In addition, the findings revealed that Maasai traditions and customs, fear of early pregnancies, corruption and irresponsibility of leaders, poverty and undervaluing of education are the factors contributing to persistence of child marriage among the Maasai girl students. The study recommends that the government in collaboration with other stakeholders should aggressively implement laws protecting children. A close monitoring of local leaders’ actions by top government leaders to help combating child marriage is also recommended. Moreover, joint efforts are needed to educate society members and girl-students on the negative impact of child marriage and the importance of girls’ education.