Nominated MP Irene Mayaka has demanded a status report of the campaign to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) by 2022.
Seeking a statement from the Departmental Committee on Social Protection, Mayaka said the government should highlight achievements towards eradicating the practice.
“While the strides taken by the Ministry of Public Service, Gender and Affirmative Action in the eradication of FGM cannot be gainsaid, certain areas in the country still practice it,” Mayaka stated.
She said there is a need for an extension of the campaign to ensure total prohibition and eradication of all forms of FGM in the country.
Mayaka further wants the government to state the measures it has put in place to sustain the gains made through the campaign beyond 2022.
“What programmes has the Ministry initiated towards the sensitisation of communities susceptible to the negative effects of FGM and the amount of resources allocated to achieve accelerated eradication of the vice,” she posed.
The legislator asked the government to consider another phase of the campaign to end FGM in targeted areas of the country for a term of three years.
In November 2019, the Ministry of Public Service, Gender and Affirmative Action launched a National Policy on Abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation.
It followed a commitment from then-President Uhuru Kenyatta on June 4, 2019, to end it by 2022.
The policy was aligned with the impetus to accelerate the eradication of FGM in the country.
Kenya has been ranked highly among the countries recording a sharp decrease in FGM cases, which have fallen from 26 to 9 per cent over the last 30 years.
Even as the war against the outlawed practice continues to gain traction locally, data released during International Women’s Day portrayed a different scenario with an estimated 15 per cent increase in the total number of survivors representing 30 million more girls and women, compared to data released eight years ago.
In the East Africa region, however, Kenya trails its neighbour Uganda which has recorded the least cases of FGM at only 0.3 percent. Tanzania follows Kenya with 15 percent currently.
Somalia is leading among African countries with about 98 per cent of its women and girls aged between 15 to 49 years undergoing the cut.
