No more scalpel: How Bill seeks to end medicalised, cross-border FGM
Marsabit girls who underwent medicalised FGM. Parliament plans to amend the law to end the practice.
What you need to know:
- Medics have been accused of abetting FGM by producing fake reports, prompting the need for a legal review to curb medicalised and cross-border practices.
- Kenya plans to amend anti-FGM law, addressing loopholes that enable medical, cross-border, and inter-county genital mutilation.
In 2023, a senior provincial administrator in Narok County put the medics in the area on notice after it emerged that a number of them had been colluding with locals to abet female genital mutilation (FGM).
The administrator accused the medics of writing untrue reports whenever FGM cases were presented to them, to hide evidence in court and let culprits free. The revelation came after a woman was arrested in the Limanet area of Narok Central for subjecting her two daughters to FGM. However, after the girls were taken to the Narok County Referral Hospital, the medics gave a primary report that they had not undergone genital mutilation.
Security team and the Office of Director of Public Prosecution threatened to take the girls to a hospital far away for another examination, only for the medics to release another report that showed the girls had indeed undergone FGM a few weeks earlier. The administrator noted another similar case had been reported days earlier, where a medic gave a false report of a girl who had been arrested for undergoing FGM. However, upon further examination in a different hospital, the girl was evidenced to have undergone FGM.
Besides shielding perpetrators to face the law, some medics have been accused of cutting girls in health work stations or homes. Medicalisation of FGM has been gaining traction in Kenya in recent years. To tighten the law and seal loopholes, a fresh bid seeks to review the anti-FGM law to make it more punitive.
The Anti-FGM Board, on its Facebook page, says a thorough review by a technical working group has identified gaps in the law and an amendment bill has been proposed, ready for validation. “The draft of the Prohibition of FGM Bill, 2025, introduces clear definitions of terms; outlines offences and penalties; and aligns Kenya’s legislative approach with the East African Community’s Elimination of FGM Bill, 2025—reinforcing regional efforts to end this harmful practice,” the board says in a statement.
The board indicated that planning is underway to roll out public participation to ensure the views of communities and stakeholders inform the final version of the law. The amendment seeks to tame emerging trends like medicalised FGM, cross-border and inter-county FGM, and changes in FGM types, among other trends.
Prohibition of FGM Act
The Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act, 2011, which came into force 14 years ago, is silent on cross-border and medicalised FGM. Several developments have since emerged, including medicalised, cross-border and inter-county FGM, and changes in the types of FGM practised. Anti-FGM Board CEO Bernadette Loloju says a review of the law is underway. “The review process has begun. For now, I can't give a comprehensive report.”
Tony Mwebia, the founder of Men End FGM, an organisation leading the campaign to impress upon men to join the fight against mutilation, terms the review a move in the right direction, adding the legislation has gaps to be fixed. “The review, among others, needs to look at the lack of safe houses, hence leaving girls in cells as they await to testify, which, to me, is punishment to the already cut girls. We need bigger fines and punishments for deterrence. There is a need to be more explicit on emerging issues like medicalised and cross-border FGM,” he said.
During the second International Conference on Female Genital Mutilation that took place in Tanzania recently, cross-border FGM emerged as one of the major threats to ending genital mutilation in Africa by 2030. In the meeting, convened by the African Union and UNFPA, member states agreed on joint measures that would eliminate cross-border FGM. Delegates from different African countries unanimously agreed to have a continental model law and harmonise laws and policies to reduce FGM. Data and findings presented at the conference show the rise in cross-border and medicalised FGM puts millions of girls at risk.
In 2023, 4.3 million girls were at risk of FGM in Africa. About 55 million girls aged 15–28 in Africa have experienced FGM, with 20 per cent of them subjected to medicalised FGM. In 2021, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Somalia launched an action plan to end cross-border female circumcision. The plan was launched by Gender ministers during a high-level inter-ministerial meeting, which launched the study on FGM across border communities.
The development of a comprehensive programme of actions aimed at strengthening the work of regional human rights instruments call for total elimination. It also constitutes a framework at the regional level for state and non-state actors to enhance prevention, protection, and prosecution initiatives in ending cross-border FGM and sets out a regional mechanism to support regional and national efforts.
