Hundreds of girls camp at schools to escape 'the cut' over holidays

Hundreds of schoolgirls have taken refuge in schools for fear of being forced to undergo Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

The girls are hiding in, among other schools, Wanyoi Primary School in Nakwijit location and Kapkata Progressive Primary School in Ptoyo location.

Government officials in the region have vowed to protect the girls at whatever cost throughout the December holidays, with an unknown number of the minors said to have already undergone the cut.

Nakwijit Chief Simon Lokelima and Wanyoi Primary School head teacher Benjamin Lomeringole were on Wednesday keeping vigil at the school where over 37 girls are camping.

The situation is the same at Kapkata Progressive Primary School where Ptoyo Chief Samuel Chemonorey and some area residents are watching over 42 girls who are fleeing from the cultural practice.

Mr Lokelima said despite efforts by the Anti-FGM Board and World Vision to create awareness against the retrogressive practice, cases of girls being forced to undergo the cut at a tender age were still rampant, leading to early marriages and death from excessive bleeding in some cases.

"After intensive awareness by Anti-FGM Board and World Vision, we have had significant change with many parents stopping the practice, but we still have a few individuals who are resistant to change. We are pursuing them and they will face the law if found," he said.

His Pyoto counterpart Chief Chemonorey decried the persistent cases of FGM, saying proponents of the practice had devised new ways of carrying out their activities to avoid detection by the Government.

"Nowadays, they pretend to be holding prayer meetings yet they are circumcising the girls," he said. Meanwhile, local political leaders have condemned the practice, saying it was giving the county a bad name besides denying the girl child an opportunity to education in cases where they are married off early after undergoing the cut.

Led by West Pokot Woman Representative Regina Nyeris and Deputy Governor Titus Lotee, the leaders said the practice should come to an end.

"We cannot allow a practice that is undermining the girl child and women to continue thriving. We must join hands and bring it to an end," said Lotee when Pokot elders performed a ritual to condemn FGM at Chebareria area.

"We have set aside county development funds amounting to Sh9 million to construct rescue centres in the region where girls will be protected from the vice," said Nyeris during anti-FGM cross country competition at Kishaunet Showground on Wednesday.

An estimated 140 million girls and women are living with the consequences of FGM worldwide, with most of them residing in 28 African countries. Cases of girls fleeing their homes to escape the cut are not new. Last year, over 50 girls from Nginyang Girls' Boarding school in western Kenya camped at the school for fear of being subjected to the practice.