Girls score court victory against FGM

Edna Jebet and Beatrice Jepkosgei achieved a first of sorts by taking their father to court in a move that baffled their Keiyo community which views this rite of passage as a “must”.

The case came to light last December shortly before press reports that a school girl had died after being forcibly circumcised, along with eight married women, in Nandi District. In the latter’s case, however, the absence of legal legislation backing a government ban on female mutilation (FGM) prevented the perpetrators of the act from being apprehended.

Maendeleo ya Wanawake (MYWO), the largest women’s group, argues that men are the greatest obstacles to the elimination of FGM in Kenya since among many ethnic groups they prefer circumcised women to those who are not.

The organisation’s chairman, Zipporah Kittony, who is also a nominated MP, lauded the court’s decision, saying that men derogatorily refer to uncircumcised women as “overgrown babies”, sometimes compelling even married women to undergo the operation to save face.

“They also claim that uncircumcised women are promiscuous and cannot be satisfied by one man in a marriage,” she added.

Arguments for the girls’ case reminded the court that Kenya is a signatory to various human rights conventions, including the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and there was no reason why it should violate them with impunity.

The war against FGM has tended to push the practice underground until reports of “accidental” deaths gave new impetus to the fight to have it ended once and for all.

Circumcision is still cherished among many communities in Kenya, notably the Kisii, Kipsigis, Nandi, Kuria, Keiyo, Marakwet. Reports say that a total of 2,000 girls from the communities were circumcised in 2,000 while 1,500 were circumcised the previous year. The operation, which was previously the preserve of traditional “surgeons” is now performed by paramedics at a cost of 500 Kenyan shillings (US $7).

Opponents of the rite say it is a violation of human rights, not to mention the unhygienic conditions in which the act often takes place, exposing the victims to infection and, sometimes, even death. They argue that traditional surgeons whose “patients” die should be charged with murder.

They also say circumcision is partly to blame for dropouts among girls because it misleads the initiates, some as young as 12 years, into thinking that they are adults and thus ready for marriage.

The operation varies in severity from one community to another, with the harshest form infibulation (which involves the removal of the clitoris and the labia minora) being practiced by the Somali.

A United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report chronicles gruesome accounts of FGM, noting that the immediate complications include shock, haemorrhage, injury to adjacent organs and infection.

A UN agency said that its efforts to stamp out the practice in refugee camps have been hampered by lack of enforceable legislation. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Community Services Officer, Rita Amukhobu, said female circumcision was common among refugees of Somali origin in the Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps, adding that reported cases were dealt with by relocating the would-be victims to safer settings.

Meanwhile, the Unicef Communications Officer, Greg Owino, said that his agency encouraged rites of passage that are not harmful, adding that women who undergo FGM encounter problems during childbirth.

However, Mong’ina Ondieki, a Kisii traditional surgeon, views the practice differently. She wondered why circumcision of women is considered a violation of human rights when it is not viewed as such in the case of men.

Although the December court ruling was a landmark in the fight against FGM, the war is unlikely to be won in the foreseeable future. In the meantime, the only avenue open to would-be victims appears to be relocation. Recently, the US and the European Union indicated that they were considering offering asylum to women fleeing FGM in their countries.