A mission to rescue 31 girls who were forcibly circumcised in Marakwet East, Elgeyo Marakwet County, was yesterday met with stiff resistance after residents turned hostile and attacked security personnel.
The officers, drawn from both regular and Administration Police, had gone to Tinyar and Kapkabutwo villages in Chugor sub-location to rescue the girls who were living in seclusion after undergoing the cut, but they had to abandon their mission and take cover as locals hurled stones at them.
The two villages are surrounded by hills with huge rocks and legend has it that villagers would roll them down to decimate their aggressors.
Deputy County Commissioner Hussein Alaso Hussein said residents started cursing and throwing stones at the officers from the hills, threatening to roll down big rocks if they attempted to take the girls away or arrest the perpetrators.
"We feared for the safety of our officers because the locals had surrounded the villages from vantage positions. They were throwing stones while others threatened to roll down the rocks," he said.
He said the path leading to the homestead where the girls were kept had been 'closed' using traditional paraphernalia to ward off intruders.
But security agents crossed them into the house where they found the girls covered in skins and fabric, unable to move because their wounds were still raw.
FIVE DAUGHTERS
The girls, most of whom had sat for the Standard Eight examinations while others were in secondary school, were circumcised a week ago after villagers defied an order from the local administration not to carry out the outdated practice.
Interestingly, a village elder had five of his daughters undergo the cultural rite of passage while a man is said to have forced his wife of five years to undergo the cut.
"The culprits have all been identified and we shall arrest them because they defied the order after we visited the villages to educate them on the ills of female genital mutilation.
"We want to arrest first the elder who subjected his five daughters to the cut because he was always with us during the public campaign to discard the practice but was behind the ceremony," said Mr Hussein.
When The Standard visited the area yesterday, security officers advised us not to go to the village as tension remained high.
Hussein showed The Standard team the villages and how the terrain had made the rescue mission impossible.
"Reports indicate the initiates have been taken to unknown location after the previous one was discovered," revealed Assistant Chief Samuel Rotich.
He said residents had threatened to burn down the property of fellow administrators because they had reported the incident to the police.
Marakwet East MP Kangogo Bowen condemned the incident and called on chiefs to be more vigilant.
