Official decries high rate of FGM

By Robert Nyasato

Nearly all girls in Kisii are still being subjected to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), despite its ban.

A study shows that even with the sustained anti-FGM campaign, girls aged between seven and 12 years undergo circumcision each year.

Speaking in Kisii yesterday, Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) Kisii branch manager Mary Mogaka said the survey showed 95 per cent of girls secretly undergo the retrogressive practice.

"It is worrying that FGM is being encouraged by mothers who subject their daughters to the cut without their fathers’ knowledge," Mogaka said.

The manager spoke at Igonga Secondary School when more than 100 girls graduated after undergoing an alternative rite of passage in a ceremony presided over by Kisii South DO Campton Wachira.

The statistics are a slap in the face for Government and NGO’s involved in the fight against the practice.

Yesterday, the girls aged between six and 14 years graduated after one week training on the dangers of FGM. The event was organised by YWCA.

She said Government health workers were to blame for the prevalence because they performed the cuts.

Wachira thanked YWCA for offering the training.

Mogaka said former circumcisers, who had downed their tools, would be given an alternative source of income through the association’s credit facility.

The DO warned chiefs against condoning the practice saying there is a law to prosecute those engaged in the vice.

He also cautioned parents against subjecting their daughters to FGM saying they risked prosecution.

FGM is a rite of passage for girls practised in some communities.

It involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia.

The World Health Organisation says an estimated 100 to 140 million girls and women worldwide are living with FGM consequences and in Africa, about three million girls are at risk from FGM annually.

FGM procedures can cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, and potential childbirth complications and newborn deaths.

It is mostly carried out on young girls between infancy and 15 years.

 

 

Read all about: Female Genital Mutilation Young Women Christian Association World Health Organisation

 

 

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