Ubiquitously known as the rite of passage to womanhood in many quarters, female genital mutilation has become a common occurrence in the country and especially in pastoralist regions like Baringo, Narok, Samburu, Kajiado, Mandera, Kuria and Marsabit, among others.
This harmful practice was not so pronounced as it is today before the advent of the novel coronavirus in recent times which provided a fertile environment for FGM to fester like a wound as it reared its ugly head. The emboldened manner in which local circumcisers are cutting girls and women has cast a pall over years of combating the vice and putting it under control.
This harmful practice should be tackled by county governments whose counties are notorious for FGM. In fact, we need a substantive discussion on the intersection of sexual gender-based violence, child marriage and FGM.
There is a cataclysmic effect that the furtive and unjustified manner in which girls are subjected to the cut under the noses of law enforcers like chiefs and police present. Girls are cut and no one is held accountable. Sad.
There have been echoes of calls to eradicate this vice. Retired President Uhuru Kenyatta promised that his government would have eradicated FGM by 2022. This deadline was impossible and was moved to 2026. Will Kenya beat the 2030 deadline of the Sustainable Development Goal on zero FGM?
The latest came from President William Ruto during a recent visit to Kuria where he touched on the matter asking the residents to abandon the practice henceforth.
There is an undeniable nexus between FGM and child marriage wherever this crime is committed in the world. For this, we need a dragged-out effort to put out the embers of FGM.
Eighty per cent of girls who have faced the knife are forced to get married irrespective of their age.
In Baringo county, one of the epicentres of FGM, more than 50 girls were married off last year alone and these are the ones that have been reported. This statistic could be higher than imagined.
It is a pity that this country boasts of multiple laws, including international conventions that outlaw FGM. Kenya also is one of the countries with vibrant policies on FGM but what do we do? We gloss over them.
Everyone who is a duty bearer doesn’t really do what is expected of them when it comes to dealing decisively with perpetrators of this sexual violation. I am lost for words but I don’t know whether the use of Artificial Intelligence can help in curbing the FGM menace in this country.
It's true that the country is atrophied by one problem after another but we can’t leave our girls at the mercy of FGM crusaders and inept government officials who have never been interested in ensuring that girls remain in school until they complete their studies.
They shy away from enforcing the law to the letter. Some of them take bribes to look the other way as girls are subjected to FGM and child marriage.
This attitude has left girls and women exposed and helpless in the face of FGM. In Baringo, for the last four years, not a single circumciser has faced the law for performing this unlawful rite, yet, the widespread cutting happens within the jurisdictions of people tasked with dealing ruthlessly with the vice.
In Baringo, where I am more conversant with the ongoings of FGM, the cut happens openly in Tiaty, parts of Mogotio, Baringo North and Baringo South subcounties. During the coming out ceremony, the cut girls, popularly known as “nereekan” in Kalenjin, literally paint towns red showing off their beautiful faces as men sample them for marriage.
In fact, they cease being referred to as girls and begin to be viewed as women who are ready for marriage and other adult women responsibilities. School becomes a thing of the past for them as they have been taken through ‘training’ on how to be a good wife and mother.
In Baringo, the cut is no longer preserved for young girls; reports have been made of women in their 40s and 50s being forced to face the cut so that they can partake in the initiation and marriages of their sons. This also gives them a ticket to fetch water from the river or common sources of water. Circumcised girls and women view uncut women and girls as children and stigmatise them for not being uncut.
If FGM is defeated, child marriage will cease to be a problem because only mutilated girls are married off.
