Medicalization of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Cross-border cutting have been listed as some of the emerging trends in the fight against the outlawed practise.
Despite enactment of legislation that criminalises FGM in Kenya, the practise still continues, albeit in secrecy to avoid prosecution.
The use of rogue medical practitioners to conduct FGM has been on the increase in the recent past and has been cited as a major hindrance in the fight against the practise as it is hard to trace.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), medicalization is when a health-care provider performs FGM, whether in a public or private clinic, at home, or elsewhere.
Cross-border cutting occurs when a girl is sneaked into neighbouring countries through the border to undergo the cut.
It is common among communities that live along the border, such as Maasai, Kuria, Pokot and Somalia, where girls are sneaked across the porous borders to Tanzania, Uganda and Somalia to procure FGM so as to avoid arrest.
According to Catherine Mutinda, Kajiado County Gender Officer, there is need to strengthen coordination and implementation of existing legislation so as to combat perpetuation of the vice.
Speaking at an Anti- FGM forum, Mutinda revealed that although the prevalence rate of FGM in Kajiado County has dropped from 78 percent in 2014 to 63 percent in 2022 (Kenya Demographic Health Survey report), many girls are still at risk due to emerging factors.
“Apart from cross-border cutting and medicalization of FGM, other worrying trends that are emerging include cutting of married women, infants and girls as young as five years old.” Said Mutinda.
Celebrations after a girl undergoes the cut are no longer done by the community publicly and this has also contributed to many cases going undetected.
Mary Taiko, a Director at the Gender Department, reiterated the negative physical and psychological impact FGM poses on the lives of girls and women.
Some of the health risks include severe pain, excessive bleeding, genital tissue swelling, exposure to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), urination problems, impaired wound healing, chronic genital infections and even death.
FGM in Kenya is a criminal offence under the prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act 2011, Children’s Act and the penal code.
Any person who conducts FGM, pays someone else to conduct the practice or provides his premises for it to be carried out is guilty of an offence. Failure to report the act and possession of instruments used in FGM are also crimes.
A person convicted of these offences can go to prison for between three and seven years, and be fined up to Sh. 500,000.
By Rop Janet
