Parents are taking their daughters to remote regions of Kenya to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) in secret, according to the head of the country's new FGM prosecution unit.
Christine Nanjala, who has led a high-profile crackdown on the practice, said perpetrators were becoming increasingly difficult to catch as many moved underground to carry out the practice.
"A while back you would have a big ceremony, there would be food and dancing. You have none of that now because they know we will detect it," Nanjala said. "Now, the girls are taken deep into the interior of the country where there are no roads and no mobile signal. They are taken to mountaintops."
FGM celebrations were sometimes held in churches, Nanjala said, and nurses or doctors were carrying out the procedure covertly in hospitals and clinics. "Girls will be admitted to hospital on the pretence that they are ill – and then FGM will be performed," she said. "The face of FGM keeps changing. You have to keep pushing and pushing or these people will not stop."
FGM – the removal of part or all of a girl's external genitalia – is carried out in some communities in at least 29 countries in Africa. It was banned in Kenya in 2001, and laws were tightened 10 years later to make it illegal to provide premises for FGM to take place, and to be aware of the crime and not report it.
But resistance to the law remains high, often led by older women. "We spoke to one community elder about FGM – he went back to his village to give the message and the old women beat him up and took his cattle," Nanjala said.
Could it be that the older women are unwilling to accept that FGM is wrong because it means they endured the horror of it for no good reason?
This year, in Kajiado, 80km south of Nairobi, there were large demonstrations by Masai women in support of FGM. According to a 2009 public health survey, 73% of Masai women have undergone FGM, while 27% of Kenya's female population have undergone the practice. "I am honestly glad they are demonstrating," Nanjala said. "Now we can get the conversation going. If they protest it makes the girls among them think and ask questions."
A Masai couple pleaded not guilty to the murder of 13-year-old Raima Ntagusa in June, who bled to death after an FGM procedure went wrong. Nanjala said a recent raid had resulted in the arrests of two parents, a cutter and a village chief.
The national anti-FGM unit was set up in April to ensure laws are implemented. Of the 71 cases taken to court since 2011, 16 have resulted in convictions and 33 are pending, according to police statistics.
"We had the laws, but we realised cases weren't being prosecuted," Nanjala said. "Now we are using a two-pronged approach: we are sensitising the public and filing cases for prosecution. There is carrot, but there is also a stick – or else why would people stop?"
Gender equality campaigners have raised concerns about a reversal of women's rights in Kenya after the passing of the Matrimonial Property Act, which they argue strips women of their rights to their own home. In June, President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law a bill that legalised polygamy.
"These acts are not good and they are damaging marriage in our country," Nanjala said. "Now girls are asking why they should get married – they can buy their own house, pay their own bills. Why should they get married if they can lose that and her husband marries another woman?"
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| Masai women in Kameli, Kenya. Some Masai women campaigned in support of FGM this year, even though the practice was banned in 2001 |
"A while back you would have a big ceremony, there would be food and dancing. You have none of that now because they know we will detect it," Nanjala said. "Now, the girls are taken deep into the interior of the country where there are no roads and no mobile signal. They are taken to mountaintops."
FGM celebrations were sometimes held in churches, Nanjala said, and nurses or doctors were carrying out the procedure covertly in hospitals and clinics. "Girls will be admitted to hospital on the pretence that they are ill – and then FGM will be performed," she said. "The face of FGM keeps changing. You have to keep pushing and pushing or these people will not stop."
FGM – the removal of part or all of a girl's external genitalia – is carried out in some communities in at least 29 countries in Africa. It was banned in Kenya in 2001, and laws were tightened 10 years later to make it illegal to provide premises for FGM to take place, and to be aware of the crime and not report it.
But resistance to the law remains high, often led by older women. "We spoke to one community elder about FGM – he went back to his village to give the message and the old women beat him up and took his cattle," Nanjala said.
Could it be that the older women are unwilling to accept that FGM is wrong because it means they endured the horror of it for no good reason?
This year, in Kajiado, 80km south of Nairobi, there were large demonstrations by Masai women in support of FGM. According to a 2009 public health survey, 73% of Masai women have undergone FGM, while 27% of Kenya's female population have undergone the practice. "I am honestly glad they are demonstrating," Nanjala said. "Now we can get the conversation going. If they protest it makes the girls among them think and ask questions."
A Masai couple pleaded not guilty to the murder of 13-year-old Raima Ntagusa in June, who bled to death after an FGM procedure went wrong. Nanjala said a recent raid had resulted in the arrests of two parents, a cutter and a village chief.
The national anti-FGM unit was set up in April to ensure laws are implemented. Of the 71 cases taken to court since 2011, 16 have resulted in convictions and 33 are pending, according to police statistics.
"We had the laws, but we realised cases weren't being prosecuted," Nanjala said. "Now we are using a two-pronged approach: we are sensitising the public and filing cases for prosecution. There is carrot, but there is also a stick – or else why would people stop?"
Gender equality campaigners have raised concerns about a reversal of women's rights in Kenya after the passing of the Matrimonial Property Act, which they argue strips women of their rights to their own home. In June, President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law a bill that legalised polygamy.
"These acts are not good and they are damaging marriage in our country," Nanjala said. "Now girls are asking why they should get married – they can buy their own house, pay their own bills. Why should they get married if they can lose that and her husband marries another woman?"
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