• Displacement caused by disasters natural and manmade put vulnerable women and girls at greater risk of gender-based violence.
• UNFPA has increased support to partners such as I-Rep Foundation and World Vision Kenya in anti-female genital mutilation initiatives in these hotpots.
There are two rainy seasons in Kenya: The long rains start in March, April and May and the short rains in October, November and December.
The past three seasons have failed, and the next one is forecasted to do the same.
In some parts of the country, the severe drought – affecting more than 2.8 million people, including more than 730,000 women of reproductive age – has been declared a national disaster.
In Samburu, pastoralist families are forced to walk for long distances in search of water and pasture to keep the remaining livestock alive.
Displacement caused by disasters due to extreme weather patterns put vulnerable women and girls at greater risk of gender-based violence and harmful practices, including female genital mutilation and early marriages.
Local groups established by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) partner and community-based organization I-Rep Foundation have reported an increase in the cases of female genital mutilation.
Young girls have been pulled out of schools to join their nomadic families.
“When drought occurs, it’s women and girls who are most affected as they have to queue day and night to pump water,” I-Rep Foundation Director Domitila Chesang said.
“Girls can also be married off for bride price to help a family survive the drought. To do that, they have to first undergo FGM.”
Prevention efforts must adapt
Of the 23 counties (Kenya has 47) affected by drought, 14 are considered FGM hotspots with prevalence rates of up to 97.5 per cent (the national prevalence rate is 21 per cent).
UNFPA has increased support to partners such as I-Rep Foundation and World Vision Kenya in anti-FGM initiatives in these hotspots.
I-Rep Foundation is training more local surveillance groups on prevention and response and working with survivors and community and religious leaders to keep girls in schools even as their families travel further afield.
“We have taken up advocacy for the set-up of mobile schools that are adapted to the pastoralist way of life so that girls do not miss out on education,” Chesang said.
“When they spend time learning, the risk of undergoing FGM is reduced.”
World Vision Kenya is conducting intergenerational dialogues on the negative effects of FGM and early marriages, forming child protection clubs in schools and integrating economic approaches such as teaching beadwork for commercial purposes in Samburu County.
According to World Vision Kenya gender and development technical specialist George Ndung’u, dialogues with reformed circumcisers, religious leaders and elders had helped in the fight against FGM.
Lewkin is a former circumciser in Ntilal Village. She says she turns down requests to perform the ritual.
“Most women do not know that some of the health issues they face are directly linked to FGM,” Lewkin said.
“They are ignorant, just as I was before attending learning sessions that led me to denounce FGM.”
While it has been banned in Kenya since 2011, the harmful practice persists. According to a UNFPA report, about 813,159 girls in Kenya were at risk of undergoing female genital mutilation between 2015 and 2030.
In some drought-affected pastoralist communities, the prevalence remains very high, especially among the Somali (94 per cent), Samburu (86 per cent), Kisii (84 per cent) and Maasai (78 per cent) communities.
The prevalence is more common among women who live in rural areas (25.9 per cent) than those in urban areas (13.8 per cent).
Girls in families who depend on the land for survival are most affected, their health compromised and the end of female genital mutilation as elusive as a downpour.