Female cut: State leaving nothing to chance

As the clock ticks towards the 2022 deadline to eradicate Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the country, State organs are leaving nothing chance.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, in November 2019, launched the National Policy on Abandonment of FGM and set the year 2022 as the deadline for eradication of the vice.

The policy is firmly grounded on the principles of gender equality, inclusivity and non-discrimination and provides the legal framework required to fast-track the eradication of FGM at the county level by creating decentralized governance structures that will be cascaded from the ward level to the county level.

It puts cultural, religious leaders and elders from the 22 FGM hotspot counties as key stakeholders who will partner with the government towards eradicating the outlawed practice.

The ministries of Public Service and Gender, Interior and Health have been tasked with spearheading the campaign.

The Gender ministry and the Anti-FGM Board have come up with various strategies targeting the circumcisers and parents abetting the practice.

Since last year, the government has launched a series of robust campaigns aimed at making the 2022 deadline a reality.

Retrogressive

Elders and female circumcisers in the 22 FGM hotspot counties have been roped in to help in the fight.

Already, elders in West Pokot and Marsabit counties denounced the practice, terming it as retrogressive and vowing to join hands with the government to eradicate it.

In August last year, Marakwet elders led by their cultural leader Mr Chelang’a Cheptoo committed to abandon the vice, adding that they would work with the government to make it a reality.

In September last year, Maasai Council of Elders from Narok County, declared that FGM, that causes harm to women and girls, has been overtaken by events and was no longer a cultural rite.

A month later, Borana Council of Elders locally known as Guma Gayo renounced FGM, terming it illegal and vowed to campaign against it.

The Ministry of Public Service and Gender Chief Administrative Secretary Rachel Shebesh who has been spearheading the government campaign, hailed the declaration by the Borana elders terming it as long overdue.

The CAS urged the community to heed the call of their elders and be among the first practicing communities to end the outlawed practice by 2022. She asked chiefs in the region to support the elders by firmly enforcing the law.

Religious leaders

The State has also engaged religious leaders in its ‘operation end FGM by 2022’.

Anti-FGM Board Chairperson Ms Agnes Pareiyo in November last year, said religious leaders are crucial people in the campaign as they interact with all members of the society and are highly respected.

Ms Pareiyo who made the remarks during a meeting with religious leaders at Ole Ntimama Stadium in Narok, said the clerics would be tasked with preaching to the residents on the dangers of circumcising girls.

Recently, the government started prevailing upon circumcisers to abandon the practice. Those already converted from practicing the vice are now anti-FGM champions in their respective communities.

Speaking in Tana River County during an anti-FGM awareness tour recently, Ms Shebesh said the government would link the former circumcisers to alternative sources of income.

She noted that the State would support them with funds from the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF) and Women Enterprise as capital to venture into income generating activities.

“We have to talk to them to abandon the harmful practice. Ending FGM is very important to the wellbeing of girls and women not just because it’s the law. The scars left after the act is committed are lifelong and women live with the trauma forever,” said Ms Shebesh.

Engaging men

In an earlier interview with Nation, Saidia Hussein an FGM survivor and anti-FGM crusader from Tana River County, said engaging men and boys is key towards ending the practice.

She noted that the voices, power, masculinity and patriarchy can be tapped in to fight FGM.

“When men stand up to say no to FGM and that they now understand the pain survivors endure, it means we are truly close to ending the outlawed cultural practice. When we commit to end it as custodians of the culture, FGM is bound to end,” she said.

Anti-FGM Board CEO Bernadette Loloju in a recent interview with NTV, said the more women are economically empowered, the more the country will have a safer society for them, from FGM.

Ms Loloju noted that following the government’s aggressive campaign to end the practice, the perpetrators are now doing it with utmost secrecy.

She, however, said there is hope as Kenya leads in the region, in the acceleration to end FGM, noting that we are the only country with an anti-FGM  body funded by the government in place.

Anti-FGM board director Mr Rashid Omar while speaking during anti-FGM sensitization campaign in Wajir last week, said the agency is glad more men were turning up for sensitization meetings and denouncing the practice.

“If men who are custodians of culture declare to end the vice, we shall end it earlier than expected. We are focused to ending FGM by 2022 as per the presidential directive. The board will, therefore, conduct a series of ant-FGM dialogues until we bring the practice to an end,” said Mr Omar.

MenEndFGM an anti-FGM organisation noted the practice is a burden bestowed on women and girls in the name of culture.

Change agents

“We need to rise and say enough is enough, since FGM is everyone’s responsibility and a violation of human rights,” Mr Tony Mwebia the CEO of MenEndFGM posted on his twitter handle.

The government’s latest strategy involves training boda boda operators in some of the hotspot counties to become change agents.

Just this week, the board trained boda boda operators in West-Pokot County as part of its sensitization activities leading to International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM, being marked today.

The operators were trained on types of FGM, the law and penalties for offences, and the negative effects of the practice on the lives of girls and women.

“Engaging the youth, particularly the boda boda operators as change agents is key in ending FGM since they interact with the community on a daily basis. In our trainings, we are imploring on them to report any suspicious cases of FGM to authorities,” the Anti-FGM Board said in a statement.

Kapenguria Assistant County Commissioner Ms Ruth Waceke speaking during the event, re-affirmed that the future of girls was in educating them.

Local leaders decried that FGM had affected the state of education in the area, urging parents and elders to end the practice, which in turn would end rampant cases of child marriages and teenage pregnancies.

According to Unicef, more than 80 per cent of FGM in Kenya is done culturally. The organisation, however, notes that more communities are abandoning the vice as the government becomes more vigilant.

Kenya banned the practice in 2011, paving the way for the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2011 that carries a minimum punishment of three years imprisonment and a Sh200,000 fine.

“It is good to see the President committing to end FGM by the year 2022, but the question at the moment should be, will policies alone work? How is the government involving leaders from communities that practice FGM? There are communities in Kenya who basically have at least one member from their household who has undergone the cut, so will we arrest whole households to kill the vice? Those are the fundamental questions that our leaders need to ask themselves and interrogate the likelihood of taking up a more all-inclusive approach," said Sammy Muraya of Journalists for Human Rights.

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