FGM season in Garissa as the long holiday begin

The cut, a campaign that is mostly used to stop and end FGM. [ Photo Courtesy]

Many parents are preparing to have their children to undergo FGM as many of them begin the long third term holidays.

Most parents allow their children to undergo this cut secretly despite knowing the Kenyan law prohibits Female Genital Mutilation.

Scholars , clerics NGOs fighting FGM  the Nyumba kumi initiative and the area administration have doubled their effoets in the last two weeks to fight and end this vice.

A vocal anti FGM crusader in Garissa, Sisters Maternity Home has decided to take their fights to rural areas after organizing a series of meeting with area chiefs and the youth.

The campaigners educate the community around on the health and legal implications of the female Genital Mutilation.

According to statistics, the Somali community has the highest rates of Female Genital mutilation in the world. According to Unicef, about 95 per cent of girls between the age of four and eleven among the Somali community undergo this vice.

FGM is a rite of passage that mostly involves removal of the external part of the female genitalia. It was officially banned by the United Nations in 2012, but is still widely practiced.

Abdullahi a member of an NGO that fights FGM said the circumcisers are making a killing out of the exercise. They charge between Sh1,000 and Sh2,000 per girl for the cut. Some years back a woman would circumcise up to 50 during a season.

‘’ Islam is against the cut and it is nowhere in the Holy Quran or even in the countries where the religion started’’ a sheikh told us

He. The sheikh adds that it is purely a cultural practice that has been sneaked into the religion by a few selfish individuals.