Under acacia trees in Kehancha town, a small wiry old man sits in the middle of a group of young Kuria boys and girls, educating them about the dangers of Female Genital Mutilation.
This is part of the 16 days of activism on gender celebrated across the globe and organised by the Network for Adolescent and Youth Africa (Naya), which started on November 25.
The old man, Mzee Mwita Nyabugembe, still evokes some tension from participants because previously, he was among the hardliner elders who used to bless girls' circumcision.
As an elder from Bukira clan, he was the voice and the face of girls' circumcision and openly argued out his stance each time he was in similar events.
But not today.
“Like Saul in the Bible, who was changed on his way to Damascus to Paul, my moment came and I resigned as the general secretary of Kuria Council of Elders and stopped blessing the cut,” Nyabugembe said.
Previously, elders had to slaughter a cow, drink milk and honey in the bush as they seek intervention from their God, Eresi.
“We also smeared part of the feast on leaves and in river stones. This was to evoke spirit, which was to make it harder for activists and the government to control girls' circumcision,” he said.
During the acme of his stance, a popular anti-FGM activist from Kuria was involved in an accident, a move the elders claimed was caused by the spirits.
Nyabugembe said the decision to ditch FGM started from his own home and his daughters, and generally how the community was showing laxity towards the entire circumcision culture.
“On December 1987, when I married, I paid 25 cows for dowry because my wife was circumcised,” he said.
“A year later, I got my first child, a daughter, who was circumcised and married off for only three cows.”
His second daughter was also circumcised and dowry is yet to be paid despite being married for several years.
“Those two had dropped out of school while their peers who were not circumcised continued with education and are employed. I stopped my last daughter from undergoing the cut and she is in high school,” he said.
During engagements with activists, I heard stories of girls who struggled with labour in births, teen marriages and pregnancies and school dropouts. When I was alone, I saw that around me
He said previously, families were mandated to give cows and money to elders to bless circumcision, which was seen as a means of income, but recently, most rites are done without their consent.
“During engagements with activists, I heard stories of girls who struggled with labour in births, teen marriages and pregnancies and school dropouts. When I was alone, I saw that around me,” he said.
He made a decision to drop his cultural role when he refused to have his daughter circumcised, even though elders were piling pressure on him.
Ricky Samuel, an officer at Naya, said Nyabugembe is now the village elder at Mogango village in Tarang’anya sublocation and has been a key figure in the fight against FGM, including cross-border FGM where parents take their girls to Tanzania for the cut.
“He is an icon in the society. It is always said if Mzee Nyabugembe left FGM, why are you still doing it? And above all, he has helped in law enforcement,” Samuel said.
He said Nyabugembe has also been the main bridge between the old and the young generation to end FGM in Kuria.
Josephat Chacha, the Kuria East subcounty Ministry of Health, said in the region, about 60 per cent of women and girls who seek birth services in hospitals are circumcised.
The Kenya Demographic and Health Survey of 2022 in the country prevalence of FGM declined from 38 per cent in 1998 to 15 per cent in 2022.
The data also shows that 94.5 per cent of women and 99.4 of men are aware of FGM in Migori county.
Chacha said while the prevalence rates have really decreased, there is more that is needed to be done, especially on younger generation, to stop the cut as the older generation finds it harder to change.
