Of the cut that caused family agony as girls contracted HIV
An HIV + blood sample. Two Tana River girls contracted the virus when they were sUbjected to FGM.
What you need to know:
- Fatma Isnino* is a woman at war with female genital mutilation and the people pushing its agenda in her community.
- The cut, which she once defended with might in her early ages, has become a monster she is determined to end.
Fatma Isnino* is a woman at war with female genital mutilation and the people pushing its agenda in her community.
The cut, which she once defended with might in her early ages, has become a monster she is determined to end. Her desire to slay the dragon is inspired by a sad story, an experience that takes a steady walk as a mother of two girls.
That year during the December holidays, she gave out her daughters to her mother to undergo the cut against the advice of her husband. Little did she know that it was the genesis of a nightmare, one that has since snatched from her one girl.
One blade shared during the operation passed HIV to her two girls, then aged seven and 10. “They were four girls, according to what I gathered on that day, the same and my girls were the last to be circumcised,” she recounts.
Parents had taken their children for the cut against the consent of their husbands, a move inspired by the elderly women who coordinated the exercise.
Everything went well for the first three weeks as the girls recovered from the cut. She was glad that her plans had succeeded, without the knowledge of the husband who was away in the wilderness with the livestock.
Signs
However, two months later, she started noticing changes in her daughters but still assumed it was normal flu that would go away. "I noticed they developed some wounds in the mouth and I thought it was just a result of the weather, they were under some flu, and I ignored it. It disappeared on its own but then came back," she narrates.
This continued for a while, but she kept treating them with traditional herbs and off-the-shelf drugs. In the third month, the men returned from the wilderness to check on their families. That night, hell broke loose and that was the beginning of family wrangles.
One of the women who had taken her child for the cut was fighting with her husband. Their arguments, amid the assault, was not pleasant and neighbours took an interest.
The husband walked out of the house and announced to the neighbours to have their children undergo an HIV test, and immediately he walked to the home of Ms Isnino and called out her husband for a side chat.
“He told my husband something, I saw my husband raise his hands behind his head and I knew it was not good news. He suddenly walked into the house and picked up the girls, mounted on a motorbike, and rode to the local dispensary in the night," she said.
Domestic violence
When he returned, he was angry and he hit her on the neck with a stick. She says she was lucky to have survived it. He drew his knife to stab her but she escaped as the other people restrained him.
He accused her of killing his children by subjecting them to the cut he had rejected. Amid the lamentations, she informed her that the children had been infected with HIV.
"I don't know what happened thereafter, I woke up from hospital unconscious and confused. I started crying for my children," she says.
The husband went to her parents and informed them that he had divorced her, and he took away the children, abandoning Ms Isnino in hospital.
She came out of hospital to look for her children, but none of the people in the neighbourhood knew where they had been taken.
For two years, she never saw them until 2019 when her mother-in-law walked into her house. "She told me my husband had died of hypertension a few months after the firstborn daughter died. That he was unable to live with the reality that had befallen his children and never left them with anyone.”
Anti-FGM champion
Ms Isnino has yet to come to terms with the death of her firstborn daughter. And though she gets the second daughter the necessary help she needs, she will never heal from the experience.
“When I see people castigate activists and champion the cut, I follow them later in their homes and share with them my story. I then tell them to wait for their experience. They look at me with utter shock but I have done my part,” she says.
She is a spy against all circumcisers in the community and informs elders and activists of plans to circumcise girls. Ms Isnino also keeps track of the events scheduled to take place during the holidays and makes sure they don't materialise.
"I see every girl as my daughter and do what is necessary to save them from going through what I went through; you never know who you are paired with on that day."
Tana River Gender Technical Working Group chairperson Ralia Hassan notes that FGM is fast becoming the quickest mode of HIV transmission. Most people from the herder communities do not take HIV test and neither do parents take necessary precaution before subjecting their children to the cut.
“Records have shown that HIV was low among herder communities in the past but is rising in the same communities over the years,” she says.
Ms Ralia says more children are at risk if this continues, hence the need to engage communities at a different level, as well as increase funding for activities that raise awareness of such risks.
County gender-based violence/adolescents reproductive health focal person Hawaa Andighafoor notes that the pastoralist families barely consult when they encounter such problems.
"They are very conservative and may not want to sit and share such with another person; they feel so intimidated and shameful, hence need to engage them more."
She says the practice has to be eradicated before the HIV problem gets out of hand, adding that the circumcisers use non-sterile equipment.
*Name changed to protect identities
