• The population council said the practice is rampant among older women who give birth.
• After success with girls, the council is turning its attention to older women who are shunned if they are not cut.
Image: Felix Kipkemoi
Female genital mutilation is rampant among women after giving birth, the National Council for Population and Development has said.
The government is engaging communities, agencies others as it seeks to end the practice, which it says is rampant.
Uncut women are not considered marriageable and those who do marry are coerced by husbands and peers to undergo FGM after childbirth
The council said the focus on older women is a result of successful campaigns to reduce it among underage girls.
The council said the practice is undertaken in secret by some communities because childbirth is not as obviously an FGM target.
President Uhuru Kenyatta had committed to ending FGM by 2022 but that has been unsuccessful. He pledged again to fight FGM during the Nairobi summit International conference on population development (IPCD25) last year.
While urging men to join the government in the campaign, the council said men are the main custodians of cultural practices in any community. With their support, FGM can be ended, the council said.
“We are optimistic that as a country we are going to realise this vision if we all join hands, Margaret Mwaila of the population council said.
"There is enough evidence to show the cut does not in any way help, in fact, men are the ones who suffer a lot because they lose enjoyment,” she said.
She was addressing the press in Bomet after a meeting with journalists to raise their awareness to report on population and development issues.
She said programmes target particular communities in 22 counties with high prevalence of FGM.
Other measures, she stated, include policies and legal frameworks which have been put in place by the government.
Mwaila called on communities to support the government’s efforts, emphasising it jeopardised the health of girls and women.
She said maternal deaths are 362 deaths per 100,000 live births. She called on pregnant women to visit health facilities.
“It is sad that in some countries there are no deaths yet in our country the rate is high. It can be stopped or reduced with at least for antenatal visits," she said.
(Edited by V. Graham)