Soon after completing Class Eight, Annah Jelanga (not her real name) from Arror in Marakwet East, Elgeyo Marakwet County was asked by her parents to visit her uncle in Nginyany, across the Kerio River.
For Ms Jelanga, now a secondary school teacher in Uasin Gishu County, she did not suspect anything unusual about this as she routinely visited her uncles in East Baringo with her siblings.
She recalls: “It was normal. We used to take food supplies to my maternal grandparents and nothing seemed suspicious other than large quantity of sugar and another bag which my elder sister carried. It came to my knowledge later that it was a cow skin that would be my clothing for the next four weeks.”
Jelanga has not forgiven her parents especially her mother for tricking her to undergo the cut. When they arrived at her grandmother’s house; a journey that took them nearly five hours, she was exhausted and asked her grandmother if she could rest. “Everything seemed to have been planned well. She informed me there was a ceremony in the neighbouring village and asked me to accompany her promising to let me rest the following day. I later learnt it was an initiation ceremony,” recalls the Business Studies teacher amid sobs.
A few kilometers to the initiation venue, Jelanga says they met a group of men who conversed with her grandmother for a while. She says she was surprised to see the men change direction and started to follow them.
It soon dawned on her that she had been set up when her grandmother told her that her time to be a woman was ripe. “I protested and cried loud but the next thing I remember was that I was in the midst of potential initiates surrounded by heavily muscled men. I later learnt my mother was around as she sang loud shouting out my name.”
That was 15 years ago, but for the mother of two girls and a boy, the incident is still fresh in her mind. She says although she didn’t feel a lot pain as she underwent the cut, what followed days later completely changed her life.
Jelanga had to undergo another cut as the traditional initiator said she had to repeat the process. “This is where the pain began. I could feel part of my vaginal skin being pricked. I lost a lot of blood and fell unconscious,” she says.
It took her about five weeks to heal and she was allowed to go back home. She decided to forget the incident since her father had agreed to pay her secondary education after she secured admission to one of the provincial schools.
And as she waited to join Form One, she started spotting and assumed she was in her menses but the bleeding prolonged. Jelanga later shared this with her sister who advised her to seek medical advice. This was not easy as the only hospital was miles away and it was a mission facility that was against FGM.
She decided to persevere for about one month but realised she could not hold urine for long. Jelanga confided in the head girl about her condition. “She found me crying and managed to convince me to open up. This was my medicine as she shared it with the school principal who took me through counseling and later hospital where I had a corrective surgery.” She says giving birth has been her nightmare since she experiences a lot of pain. Doctors told Jelanga her vaginal opening was tampered with and needed to be opened to allow childbirth. “But since I wanted children, I had to undergo the pain four times since I lost my first child during birth.”
*Her names changed to protect identity*
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