‘NAWI: Dear Future Me’
Film review:
Milka Cherotich, is the script writer of ‘NAWI: Dear Future Me,’ an intensely touching and powerful movie about forced early girl marriage in Kenya.
Courtesy of UNICEF Kenya & the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), the movie, which has been screened in 50 film festivals worldwide and won 17 international awards including the Academy Awards (as Best International Feature Film) et al, was exclusively streamed on 7-10-2025 at the Unseen Theater in Yaya, Nairobi, Kenya, where the chief guest was the Turkana County Deputy Governor Dr John Erus.
Dr Erus affirmed the Turkana County government’s commitment to enhance education for all people in the county and especially for girls. Measures are also in place to educate people on the benefits of abandoning some of the cultural practices that tend to retrogress communities’ progress.
Author Cherotich was born and raised in Turkana County where the movie was also shot. She was inspired to write and participate in production of the movie by personal experiences.
The movie is a Kenya – Germany co-production endeavor through efforts of the NAWI team that have also heralded the NAWI Initiative in Turkana County with a focus on supporting education, girls’ rescue programs and community engagement tlin order to raise awareness that should end this among other harmful cultural practices.
“When I was young, my elder sister was forcibly married off quite young to a person she neither knew well nor loved. By then, my parents hadn’t embraced Christianity but I was lucky because after they became committed Christians I was spared the horror.
“Yet, I later got traumatized when my close friend with whom I was walking along the paths was forcibly abducted by morans and married off never to return. I was at that moment hopeless and all I could do was scream and with no chances of getting help because what had happened was a normal cultural practice then,” Cherotich said at an interview shortly after the streaming.
“Why were you spared and not abducted together with your friend?” I asked.
“The abduction was a planned thing and my friend was the target. God spared me because my parents were already committed Christians who would never think of doing this,” she affirmed.
The UNICEF Kenya deputy representative, Mr Mahboob Bajwa, in his opening remarks rued that forced early marriages are a real headache to young girls in Kenya and Africa.
According to Mr Bajwa child bribes are a matter of real concern in Sub Sahara Africa particularly. Close to 130 million (M) girls have been forcibly married off before attaining adulthood in the continent with data showing that Kenya had 3.9 M child brides and with 1 in 10 girls getting married off before reaching adulthood. Globally, about 630 M girls have been forced into early marriages.
“UNICEF Kenya learnt about the movie in 2023 when the producers contacted us seeking data on forced early marriage in the country. The movie later premiered in Nairobi in 2024,” explained Dr Bajwa.
Nevertheless, childhood marriage rates are now falling thanks to government efforts though more has to be done still to totally stop the retrogressive practice.
Notably, the streaming of the movie was quite opportune just a few days before commemoration of the International
Day of the Girl Child on October 11th, 2025 under the theme, “the Girl I am, the Change I Lead: Girls on the Frontline of Crises.”
