Female Genital Mutilation abuses human rights

Kenya is blessed with numerous tourist attraction sites. It has been lauded for the ability to respect and maintain its cultural practices and rites. Her practices have been adopted by tourists who come, ape and propagate them. Modalities have been put in place to preserve the values and the practices.

However, there are some practices that antagonise human rights, especially women. During this festive season, female circumcision has been on the rise. In some regions, failure to face the knife results to alienation from the community and one being termed an outcast.

The ridicule and insults from peers can prove impossible to bear, and many girls succumb to pressure and opt to go for the cut even at an early age. But this practice that marks the ‘transition of a female from childhood into adulthood’ is life threatening. It entails cutting off the clitoris using a blade. Often, one blade is used on over 10 initiates.

Needless to say, the practice is hazardous to human health due to possible spread of disease and over bleeding, despite deforming the reproductive system.

Communities still engaged in this practice should support anti-female circumcision organisations financially to aid in propagation of effects of practice. They should also enact functional laws that penalise those found practicing it.

The Ministry of Education through school principals should follow up on cases of absenteeism in schools. That is the best way to find out which parents are initiating their daughters into womanhood through circumcision.