•Some residents are selling their livestock for the FGM customs and traditions.
•December was an FGM peak season and a majority of the perpetrators were selling their belongings to facilitate the outdated tradition.
Image: /FILE
Teresia Nyakabara has urged Kuria women to stand up for their rights and be vocal about Female Genital Mutilation.
Nyakabara represents the disabled women in Kuria West.
She said Kuria women suffer the most, especially during childbirth, yet they continue to keep quiet and subject their daughters to the same ritual.
Nyakabara spoke at her homestead in Mugwera village Kuria Westsubcounty.
She said Kuria women were struggling with the nurturing, welfare and upkeep of their children, while men were talking about non-constructive issues on barazas at marketplaces.
She said some residents are selling their livestock for the FGM customs and traditions.
Nyabakara said December was an FGM peak season and a majority of the perpetrators were selling their belongings to facilitate the outdated tradition.
“Our Kuria men are selling their livestock and property to celebrate their girls when they undergo FGM. Next year, the family has nothing to send the same girl to school,” Nyabakara said.
The leader said women should be strong and say no to FGM to caution their men not to waste their wealth on the same.
She said the local authorities have tightened loopholes, forcing FGM perpetrators to cross over the border and do the primitive act in the neighbouring countries.
Nyabakara said FGM enthusiasts end up incurring extra expenses that include transportation and food thus wasting resources that could have been used in a child’s education and other necessities.
She said her elder girl was subjected to the cut and the process was quite expensive. She said they ended up poor while her daughter missed a big part of the school term for lack of fees.
“The notion that Kuria girls cannot be married because they are not circumcised is ill-advised and has no basis in the 21st century,” Nyakabara said.
The leader advised young Kuria men to not marry circumcised girls to ensure that the iniquitous vice is eradicated.
Nyabakara called upon the Kuria community to accept that the traditional days of practising FGM were long done.
Similarly, Kuria West chairperson for the Disabled Newton Nkonya, asked the community to desist from the FGM practice.
He said that it was saddening that some members of the Abakuria community were selling land to cater for their girls FGM rights.
Nkonya advised those that were still practising the outdated vice to stop and focus on their children's education.
Nkonya said it was morally wrong to be sneaking small girls out to a foreign country and forcefully circumcising them.
He lauded the efforts the local, county and national governments have put in place to ensure that the conditions remain unfavourable to the FGM offenders.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris