Machaya, a 15 year old girl married to a 26 year old man, Hatirarami Momberume, has died during child birth at the Johannes Marange Apostolic Church shrine.
Her death has triggered an outcry in Zimbabwe as petition against child marriage has gotten thousands of signatures raising hopes that her case will bring an end to the practice of child marriage in the country.
According to a campaign tagged “Girls Not Bride in Zimbabwe”, over a third of the nation’s girls are married off before the age of 18 and 5% married off before their 15th birthday.
Child marriage is rampant in Zimbabwe, especially among indigenous churches and evangelical groups that mix Christian beliefs with traditional culture.
Following the outcry generated by Machaya’s case, her husband was arrested and charged with rape while her parents were charged with obstructing the course of justice for allegedly providing false identification documents to the police to conceal her real age.
