• The girls developed an app called i-Cut to help girls at risk and already victimised by FGM. They have been honoured internationally.
• One in five girls has been mutilated in Kenya. The rate has declined to 21 per cent from 27 per cent in 2008 but there are pockets of resistance.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
There's an app for that, it's called i-Cut and it has a panic button.
It's intended to stop stop FGM, call for help or rescue, get emergency medical aid, legal assistance, information and to make donations.
It hasn't been released on the market yet, though it is being piloted in Northern Kenya where female genital mutilation is rampant.
The app was developed by five young women — among the Star's Persons of the Year — who are doing more work on in it, in hopes it will be available in app stores in a few months. But it needs more work.
In 2017, five teenagers at Kisumu Girls High School came together to participate in a technovation challenge sponsored by Google.
They are Stacey Owino, Cynthia Otieno and Purity Achieng in Form 4, Macraine Atieno and Ivy Akinyi both in Form 2.
They call themselves The Restorers. They were the only Africans who participated in the 2017 Technovation Challenge in Silicon Valley, California.
At first they wanted to do something about plastics pollution, but that topic was taken, so they were left with FGM and decided to use technology to help reduce the illegal mutilation of girls.
Little did they know they were working on what is likely to become a vital resource.
The five have been widely recognised — by Google, African of the Year, Unesco and nominated by the Sakharov Prize.
Smart phone penetration in Kenya is the highest in Africa, 91 per cent, but not many poor girls and adolescents in FGM regions have access to one. Maybe their helpers and sympathisers do. And police and emergency medical teams.
The app’s interface has five buttons: Help, Rescue, Report, Information on FGM, Donate and Feedback.
“We wanted to develop an app that would help FGM victims get help," group leader Stacey Owino told the Star.
She said girls who are about to undergo the cut, who have already suffered or want to help other girls can alert authorities by pressing a panic button. They hope help comes in time.
“The first three buttons allow girls to seek immediate help, find a rescue centre or report cases to authorities,” Stacey said.
She added, “Our idea was simple: to restore hope to girls who have either undergone the cut or are at risk. We did not know our solution would become a vital resource in the fight against FGM."
Stacy said though they have sent the product to the market, it is yet to be released. A few partners looked at the app but advised more development to make it more efficient.
“It's been tested at various stages but now we know of more challenges girls are facing so we are trying to develop it into codes, not just blocks, before we can put it in Play Store," she said.
Where there is no internet connectivity, the girls have developed SMS codes.
Numerous organisations wish to partner with the girls and they are in talks with Fida, Men and FGM and Born Perfect, Stacey said.
The Star caught up with the young women on December 15 at JKIA before they left for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought ceremony in Strasburg, France.
They were nominated and received special recognition. But it was won by an imprisoned Uighur economist fighting for oppressed and imprisoned Uighurs in China.
“It wasn't about winning an award, it was supposed to be about promoting Sustainable Development Goals," Stacey told the Star in an interview.
But now they feel the whole world is backing them.
When they joined the Ladies Tech Club at school, FGM was the only topic left, relating to the SDG of reducing female mortality and improving access to sexual and reproductive healthcare.
Mentor Dorcas Adhiambo gave them the go-ahead.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
The fight against FGM remains one of the the government's and society's biggest challenges, with both successes and failures.
The rite of passage practice — intended to eliminate a woman's sexual pleasure and keep her 'pure' and marriageable— is difficult to eradicate, despite all the evidence against it. Dangers of death, infection, difficulties in childbirth, painful sexual intercourse, mental trauma.
It has no medical justification but is deeply embedded in culture. Uncut girls are ridiculed, ostracised and not considered marriageable, so many want to be cut.
Unicef said in 2016 that one in five girls has been cut in Kenya.
In 2011, Kenya declared FGM illegal. Tough penalties are imposed on practitioners and those who abet the barbarity. Those who take girls across borders to countries where FGM is legal are also culpable.
But stringent penalties, including jailing mothers, have created deep resentment and forced the practice underground. It is also secretly performed in homes or clinics by unscrupulous healthcare providers and workers.
Stacey said they had 12 weeks to develop a technological solution.
“It has been tough because we didn't comprehend it would be so big. The media attention and prizes, school work and developing the app have been difficult," she said.
“Sometimes you wake up and feel this is not my course, there's so much to do but we've put so much into it that we cannot give up."
Stacey said after the app was highlighted in the media, they were excited and wanted it launched in 2018, but they didn't understand the market and scalability.
They hope that by March next year, it will be up and running.
Stacey, now 19, is a second-year student at JKUAT pursuing a bachelor of science degree in maths and computer science.
She said the government should put more resources into education and implementing the polices that will eventually eradicate FGM.
Everyone can fight FGM their own way, she said. "I got a breakthrough in tech but that doesn't mean it is your way. Do what you do and do your best," she said.
Their mentor Dorcas, who supervised the project in 18 schools, said the whole idea was to spark girls' interest in technology.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
She has been on the tech journey with the girls for three years now and said the benefits are beyond comprehension.
"With the girls' getting the Sakharov nomination, it's clear FGM is far more than a Kenyan problem. We hope many partners, including international ones, willshare input on how this app can be developed to serve communities," dorcas sad.
She said five organisations are partnering with them, though the deals have not yet been formalised.
“We need to collectively join in the war against FGM, we need more pressure, more publicity and more resources. This is he only way we can win," Dorcas said.
There's a lot to fight against. Currently a pro-FGM doctor, Tatu Kamau, is in court challenging the laws that outlawed FGM. She claims it should be decriminalised, recognised as a cultural right and a matter of choice.
She says cut women are more fertile than unmutilated women — and they don't bother their husbands for sex.
Image: FILE
Her case is opposed by NGOs, Fida, Equality Now and many medical experts.
Equality Now says that Kenya's FGM prevalence stands at 21 per cent, declining from 27 per cent in 2008. Still there are pockets of resistance.
And girls and supporters who need the i-Cut app.