'My rights were violated and I am scarred for life'

nkatha who was circumcised at 9 and the emotional agony she went through. Inset: The circumciser. [PHOTOS: LUCY MURUNGA/STANDARD]

Nkatha is a victim of female genital mutilation having been forced to undergo the rite by her grandmother when she was only nine years old. She vaguely remembers the finer details of what happened on that dreary day. But there is one particular thing that gnaws at her every time the events of the day hauntingly come back; a woman visitor.

“My grandmother called me outside and began talking to me about the cut and its importance. I remember being very terrified and hoping I could find a way to run away, but it was very dark. Later two women - one of them was my aunt - held me. The room was dimly lit. The next thing I felt was a piercing pain. I attempted to scream but my aunt told me not to cry. A few minutes later, it was all done. I was writhing in pain. I was then carried and put to sleep and my aunt stayed with me in the house.

“I began to understand more about what happened when I turned 14. I then asked my grandmother why she did that to me. I asked my mother why she did not stop my grandmother. She said she remained silent for she did not want to be labelled a ‘rebel’ and a ‘traitor’ for going against the accepted norm.

“My grandmother congratulates me, even now, for having been brave and is proud that now I am a ‘woman’, but I refuse to see it that way.”

What disappoints Nkatha, 15, is that no one thought it necessary to ask her if she wanted to have the cut. “They just did this because it was right to them. I am bitter because I do not know where they took that part of my body. They violated my rights and there is nothing I can do to change the past.” When she is done talking, Nkatha’s eyes are tear-glazed, six years since she was cut.

Once a girl has undergone FGM, she is regarded as an adult and can get married. Naturally, quitting school is inevitable. Nkatha had contemplated leaving school but decided to press on eventually. She is now in Standard Seven and hopes to become a doctor someday.

“This tradition should end, I don’t support FGM at all. I hope that my younger sister will not have to go through what I went through and I have told my grandmother I will report her to the authorities if she tries to force her to undergo the cut,” she says.

Nkatha now more aware of the dangers of FGM pleads with the authorities and children rights organisations to protect the girl child from forms of violence such as FGM which deny most girls an opportunity to realise their full potential.

It is a violation of the rights of the girls it is forced upon. At nine, Nkatha was too young to give informed consent and to understand what she was being forced to agree to, says Tom Okeyo, of Plan Kenya, an international non-governmental organisation working with children in Tharaka Nithi County.

“Girls like Nkatha require consistent counselling to help them cope with the trauma from the experience they went through and also the negative effects of the cut,” he says.

Even though FGM is outlawed in Kenya, the practice is still widespread in many communities across the country. Okeyo says social stigma is widespread especially within the school environment for girls who have not been cut, or at home for women married but have not gone through FGM, forcing some to get the ‘cut’ in order to gain social acceptance.

According to the 2008/2009 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS), an estimated 39.7 per cent of girls and women in the larger Meru community had undergone FGM. However, the practice is even more widespread in pockets of Tharaka Nithi especially in Tharaka South and North and also in Chuka’s Igambang’ombe area.

On November 20, the cabinet secretary for Devolution and Planning  warned against the continued practice of FGM in the country saying that any person who administers the cut will face the full force of the law. In spite of this, those perpetuating the practice are still walking free - and December is the month that many girls undergo the rite in many cultures across the country.

I met a 45-year-old traditional circumciser from a remote village in Tharaka South who was reluctant to reveal her identity because she fears she will be arrested by the authorities. This is an obvious indication she knows the law but is willingly going against it. Let us call her Mwenda for ease of reference. Mwenda says she circumcises at least 240 girls every year in April, August and December. The December holidays are usually the peak season when the girls are on long holidays.

Her charges are Sh3,000 per girl, for a process that takes less than five minutes. The age of the girls is not uniform. It all depends on when the girl is ready to go through “the important rite”, says Mwenda, adding while looking at me straight in the eye, “No girl has ever been forced to undergo FGM against her will.”

Mwenda says married women also seek her services because when they are married in homes where all the women are ‘cut’ except for them, they are ridiculed. Their husbands are also laughed at.

“I am aware that the Government is cracking down on perpetrators of FGM. I am willing to stop the practice. I don’t do this because I like to do it. It’s just that this is what sustains me and my family. I would stop if I had another source of livelihood.”