End FGM from the home
On Monday, a couple in Leparua, Isiolo County, was arrested for allegedly subjecting their six-month-old daughter to female genital mutilation (FGM). This is a horrendous act.
It violated the infant’s right to safety and protection from harm espoused in our Constitution, the Children Act, 2022, and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
FGM is a fatal, harmful cultural practice. For example, last year, a 13-year-old girl in Somalia bled to death after the ‘cut’. This recent incident is a reminder of the dangers of the practice prevalent in 35 communities spanning 22 counties in Kenya.
Former President Uhuru Kenyatta had set this year as his target year for ending FGM—meaning there would be no more new cases of the vice in the next two months.
But clearly, this is an elusive goal. The case of the infant shows just how families are secretly cutting their daughters at a very young age, deviating from the norm where parents do so above eight years.
Government data shows a 21 per cent to be FGM prevalence rate in the country—a pervasiveness that is conjoined with child marriage. Parents cut their girls to prematurely cross them over to adulthood, hence, ready for marriage.
Kenya prides itself in robust laws and policies on ending FGM. Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act, 2011, National Policy for the Eradication of Female Genital Mutilation, combined with regional and international human rights instruments, provide a solid framework for sensitising parents against subjecting their daughters to the vice.
With the Children Act at hand, they must be made to understand that making a decision that defies the best interest of the child, such as subjecting them to FGM, is a crime punishable by three years in prison or a Sh500,000 fine or both.
Laudable are the government’s efforts, in collaboration with private partners, against FGM. But without first changing the mindset of parents and guardians, the fight would be a losing battle. Let us end FGM from within the households.
