A Leader in a Secretive Sect Jailed for 3 Months on CSA Charges

Guilt can be a heavy burden - and this seems to be the case with the latest chapter in the disturbing story of a senior Victorian (Victoria State, Australia) sect leader now in jail on child sex charges.

This young woman, whose identity we have concealed,
is still dealing with the consequences of alleged sex abuse.

Ten days ago Chris Chandler, 56, drove to Melbourne from his property on French Island, in Western Port. Then he went to the Melbourne Magistrates Court to hand himself in.

Chandler was a leader of the secretive Bible sect known as Friends and Workers, or the Two by Twos, who have 2000 Victorian members. He had already admitted his guilt in eight charges in a Gippsland court including unlawful indecent assaults, indecent assaults and gross indecency on three young female victims.

But Chandler baulked at his sentence of a year's jail with a non-parole period of three months, telling his lawyers that while he was guilty, he wasn't guilty to that extent.

Chris Chandler

But then something changed. He decided he wanted to go to jail. When he turned up at Melbourne's central magistrates court to surrender - not the Morwell court his hearings had been held in, and not the one closest to his home - he hadn't told the policeman who made the charges stick what he was about to do.

Sergeant Darren Eldridge of Moe police was surprised to hear Chandler had given up his fight. He had been working on the case for two years. ''We were assisted in different ways by a number of congregation members,'' he said.

The sect is a strange offshoot of the Cooneyites; it adheres strongly to Bible sections of Matthew 10 to do with Jesus sending out disciples to cleanse ''impure spirits''. I expect he means 'to cleanse people of impure spirits', not cleansing the spirits themselves.

They do not have church buildings or headquarters and do not have written policies or doctrines. Travelling missionaries live with sect families for extended periods.

Television, radio, movies, dancing and jewellery are banned. It is strong in Victoria because the Irish founder of the Cooneyites was the Protestant evangelist Edward Cooney, who moved to Mildura and died there in 1960.

A submission to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious groups by WINGS, an online group of ex-sect members, said it has been ''haphazard'' in dealing with many sexual abuse allegations.

The sect was linked to the suicides of Narelle and Stephen Henderson, aged 14 and 12, of Pheasant Creek near Kinglake, in 1994. Narelle's suicide note read: ''We committed suicide because all our life we were made to go to meetings. They try to brainwash us so much and have ruined our lives.''

The sect holds five Victorian conventions a year at Speed (near Mildura), Colac, Drouin and Thoona near Benalla, where a prominent sect family has a farm.

A Fairfax Media investigation last year established sect leaders knew of the allegations against Chandler but promoted him, in 1991, to the senior position of ''worker'', or minister - meaning he was staying in private homes until 2004 in Wodonga, Shepparton, Launceston and rural Tasmania.

He later positioned himself as a counsellor and sect contact for child sexual abuse victims. He recently returned from stints for the sect in South America and Africa.

The Victorian and Tasmanian leader of Friends and Workers, David Leitch, of Melbourne, is known to be close to Chandler. He would not comment but an ex-sect source claimed he has a file on alleged sexual offences by Chandler which he has not given to police. Leitch sacked a sect leader for reporting sexual abuse in 2013.

Ex-member ''Ruby'', of Gippsland - not her real name - said Chandler was close to her family and that she was sexually assaulted by him in 1989 when she was 10. Her allegations led to one of the eight charges against him. She says the pair were at a beach when he rubbed his erection against her and asked if she ''wanted to make him happy''. He later tried to have a conversation with her about sexual rights and consent, she said.

She said the sect had a ''culture of secrecy'' and distrust of outsiders. Sexual abuse of young people and children was common. She said she was visited by sect head Leitch before she went to police. ''He said to me 'if you go to the police there's not much they can do'.''

She said Chandler messaged her through Facebook claiming he was molested as a child, that he had a different memory of the beach incident and that he was not a paedophile but rather suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder.

''It is not so much what he did to me,'' she said.

''I know he did worse things to others who are not emotionally strong enough to act. I want to get it all out in the open.''

Sergeant Eldridge said Chandler had made contact with family members of other alleged victims before handing himself in.

Ex-Portuguese Cop to Counter-Sue the McCanns

The former Portuguese police chief accused of libelling Madeleine McCann's parents is planning to sue them back, it emerged today.

Goncalo Amaral, who was axed from the investigation into the missing three-year-old, accused Kate and Gerry McCann of causing him 'enormous damage' and the effect was 'moral, professional and financial'.

Writing on Facebook, Amaral, 55, said: 'The time to judicially react to those who put my privacy, intimacy, freedom of expression and opinion and survival at stake is approaching.

'They have tried to assassinate me civilly. But due to the support and solidarity of all of you, they were not successful.'

Amaral has been on trial at Lisbon's Palace of Justice after claiming Kate and Gerry McCann faked their daughter's abduction.

Now he is believed to be launching a counter case against the couple claiming they breached his right to 'privacy and freedom of expression'. Since when does slander fall under 'freedom of expression'?

Goncalo Amaral

Amaral made the claims in a book about their role in the disappearance of their daughter from the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve in 2007.

The book, The Truth of the Lie, was published a year later.

Amaral also ridiculed the McCanns' claims of feeling socially isolated by pointing out they spoke in Parliament and were quizzed by TV's Oprah Winfrey, The Sun on Sunday reported today.

Madeleine disappeared from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve on May 3, 2007, as her parents dined at a nearby restaurant with friends.

The McCanns are suing for libel over claims made in Mr Amaral's 2008 book, including suggestions that they hid Madeleine's body after she died in an accident and faked an abduction. There were no signs of a break-in at the apartment when Maddy disappeared. One would think that if the McCanns were going to fake an abduction, they would, at least, make it appear like a break-in happened.

Kate McCann (left) and her husband Gerry McCann (right), parents of missing
British youngster Madeleine McCann, talk to the press after delivering
statements at the Palace of Justice, Lisbon

They say the allegations damaged the hunt for their daughter and exacerbated their anguish. Indeed, while Amaral was chasing the parents, the real abductor had plenty of time to leave the country, and/or do what he wanted with Madeleine.

Mr McCann also told the court in Lisbon that one group distributed a leaflet called 60 Reasons Why Madeleine McCann Was Not Abducted to their neighbours in Leicestershire.

If successful, the family stand to gain around £1million in damages. A judgment is not expected in the trial until later this year.

'Boko Haram' Abducts Cameroon Politician's Wife and Others

The Cameroonian military says members of the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram have abducted the wife of the country's deputy prime minister in the northern Cameroonian town of Kolofata.

A local religious leader and mayor was also abducted from the same town.

Separately, at least five people in northern Nigeria were killed in a blast - residents suspect Boko Haram.

Boko Haram has stepped up cross-border attacks into Cameroon in recent weeks, as the army was deployed to the region.

Cameroon Army

Militants have kidnapped foreign nationals in northern Cameroon before, including a French family and Chinese workers.

The wife of Deputy Prime Minister Amadou Ali and her maid were taken in "a savage attack" on his home by Boko Haram militants on Sunday, Information Minister Issa Tchiroma said.

But Mr Ali, who was breaking his fast for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan at the time of the attack, managed to escape to a neighbouring town, regional commander Col Feliz Nji Formekong told the Reuters news agency.

"The situation is very critical here now, and as I am talking to you, the Boko Haram elements are still in Kolofata town in a clash with our soldiers," he added.

A local politician and his family were also abducted in a separate attack.

Meanwhile, Nigerian police say five people were killed when a bomb was thrown at worshippers as they were leaving a church in Nigeria's main northern city of Kano on Sunday.

A young female suicide bomber also wounded five police officers as she rushed towards them and blew herself up in a separate incident, they add.

Cameroon's long and porous border with Nigeria means Boko Haram fighters can come and go at will, attacking police stations and villages, and spreading terror throughout the region, says BBC Africa editor Mary Harper.

The group has attacked Cameroon three times in as many days in the past week, killing at least four soldiers, Reuters reports.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau
Boko Haram loosely translates as "Western education is forbidden"

On Friday, more than 20 members of the militant group were jailed in Cameroon on charges of possessing illegal firearms and plotting an insurrection.

The armed group is seeking to establish an Islamists state in Nigeria.

Earlier this week, Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger agreed to form a 2,800-strong regional force to tackle Boko Haram militants.

Efforts to step up regional co-operation gained momentum after Boko Haram caused an international outcry by abducting more than 200 girls from a boarding school in north-eastern Nigeria.

The girls are thought to be held in the vast Sambisa forest, along Nigeria's border with Cameroon.

Many Nigerian civilians in border towns have fled to Cameroon to escape from the Boko Haram attacks.

The Sorry State of India's Child Sex Abuse Epidemic

Poulomi Banerjee, Hindustan Times

Literature has many characters whose behaviour would be condemned in the real world. That’s certainly the case with The Godfather’s Jack Woltz with his predilection for very young girls. But one doesn’t have to turn to Hollywood films or American fiction to find instances of paedophilia or child sexual abuse (CSA).

It’s there in the “orangedrink lemondrink man’s” abuse of the young boy Estha in Arundhati Roy’s The God Of Small Things and the reel angst that Alia Bhatt’s character felt on being abused by her uncle as a child in the film Highway.

Four-year-old Pranaadhika Sinha Devburman felt a similar pain and betrayal on being abused, sexually, by a senior family member. It was only years later, however, that she could finally manage to talk about it. “He molested me some four-five times when I was left in his care.

Later, I realised my mind had blocked out that experience to cope with the trauma,” says the Kolkata-based rights activist.

Sleazy uncles, over-friendly aunts and adult family members or friends given to excessive physical displays of affection are part of most children’s growing up years. When advances end in abuse, the child is hushed for fear of social repercussions.

“Statistics show every second child in India has faced some sort of sexual abuse,” says Pooja Taparia, whose Mumbai-based organisation Arpan, works to prevent child sexual abuse and help victims. Recent National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data shows a 44.7% increase in the number of children who had been raped in 2013 as compared to 2012.

Pooja Taparia - Arpan

“Since the Satyamev Jayate episode (weekly TV talk show) on child sexual abuse and a spate of media campaigns, reporting of abuse has gone up. Still, it’s a far cry from what it should be,” says Nishit Kumar of Childline India Foundation, the country’s first toll-free tele-helpline for children in distress.

About 9% of distress calls received by Childline are related to child sexual abuse. But an outrage on the scale of the recent Bangalore protest against the rape of a six-year-old at school, allegedly by a teacher, is rare.

“Action within the family is increasing. But, in our experience, not a single parent has come back to us and said that they would like to take legal action against the abuser,” says Taparia. The reasons go beyond the fear of stigma.

Sometimes, parents fear that extended court proceedings may add to the child’s trauma. Often, confusion and a misplaced sense of guilt stops children from confiding in their parents. Or, where the abuser is a person in power, a teacher or a family elder, the fear of punishment keeps them silent.

As in the case of Neha (name changed on request), who was abused by her maths tutor when she was 11 and only found the courage to seek help when she became pregnant.

“In most cases, parents come to seek help for behavioural problems in their children. It is only during therapy that we find that the child has been sexually abused,” explains child psychiatrist Deepak Gupta.

The Internet presents a new source of vulnerability with strangers attempting to befriend children on social media. The moral police (that would be me) are quick to put the blame on the easy availability of porn on the Internet and on mobile phones, but Nishit of Childline argues that such easy connections cannot be made.

“In some countries like Holland where even commercial sex and some forms of porn are over the top, they have the lowest number of child sex abuse cases,” he says adding that CSA cases tend to be higher in societies with repressed social systems. “In most cases, abuse is by a normal adult who succumbs to the temptation of easy sex,” he says. Taparia agrees “In only 20 per cent of cases of child sexual abuse is the offender a paedophile.”

The abuse is more difficult to detect and curb in the case of children living on the streets and in government shelters. There are provisions to periodically monitor such institutions but these exist only on paper.

 According to a 2013 report by Human Rights Watch, many facilities are not registered making supervision difficult. There is no provision under the Juvenile Justice Act to penalise non-registration either. “India signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992.

However, Child Protection came into our Plans only in the XIth Plan. India grossly underspends on children and hence every aspect of children’s lives is an issue,” says the Childline official.

The Juvenile Justice Act (Care and Protection of Children) 2000 has been the main legal framework related to children in the country. In 2013, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was passed. POCSO widens the definition of sexual abuse of children and makes reporting mandatory.

It mentions the Juvenile Police and the formation of special courts for speedy trial of cases registered under POCSO. However, according to NCRB figures, 28,171 of 33,328 cases of rape of children awaiting trial at courts (including pending cases from the last year) were still pending trial at the end of 2013.

Anant Asthana child rights lawyer

“There is a lack of judicial infrastructure,” says Anant Asthana, a child rights lawyer. “The legal system in our country is responsive rather than preventive,” he adds. Rule 31 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) rules 2007, does require state and central government to issue guidelines for the prevention of the sexual abuse of children, he says. “Delhi did release some guidelines in 2013, but is yet to officially notify it and so it is not legally binding”. 

Meanwhile, prevention is needed at the individual and the social level. “People have to ensure that an individual child is not exposed to an adult in any room or closed space,” cautions Kushal Singh, chairperson, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

And while the onus of protecting children lies with the adults, Taparia believes children should also be empowered to protect themselves. “We should teach them to identify between safe and unsafe situations and touches,” she says. In case of abuse, “family support is a must along with psychological assessment and intervention,” cautions Dr Gupta.

Time does not heal. Not if the wound is ignored and allowed to fester in silence.

Outrage After Judge Gave No Jail Time to Man With Awful Child Pornography

Police are considering appealing a decision by a Hamilton, New Zealand judge not to jail a man found with more than 1000 child pornography images and videos.

The step has been backed by child abuse advocates who were outraged that Craig Owen John Wyber was only given 11 months home detention and 150 hours community work by Judge Denise Clark in the Hamilton District Court last week.

It would appear that some judges think of child pornography as a victimless crime. It is not! Children, probably many children, had to suffer to make those photos and videos. Furthermore, their suffering may become unbearable when they realize what has been done to them and learn that their photos and videos are out there on the internet forever.

Wyber had earlier admitted 20 representative charges of possessing objectionable material and three charges of distributing material which featured children as young as two years old and bestiality.

The charges carry maximum prison sentences of five and 10 years respectively.

Craig Wyber

In court, police prosecutor Sergeant Bill Cronin labelled the images the worst he had seen in his 37-year policing career.

The judge said although the charges most commonly resulted in prison terms, she was swayed by submissions from Wyber's counsel Phil Morgan QC, including the fact Wyber had sought treatment at the Safe Network not long after his arrest in November last year.

Waikato police acting district prosecutions manager Sergeant Andrea McBeth said Wyber's file was with the police legal team in Wellington being assessed for appeal.

Stop Demand's founder and long-time campaigner on child sex abuse image offending, Denise Ritchie, said the decision not to jail Wyber incensed not only her, but members of the public from whom she had fielded phone calls.

"This manifestly weak sentence deserves utter condemnation when weighed against the horrific life-long impact on Wyber's victims.

"Child sex abuse image crimes are amongst society's most heinous crimes. It is horrific enough for a child to endure rape or sexual violation. But for such crimes to be expressly committed and recorded to meet the demand by men like Wyber for their own sexual arousal and gratification, and distributed to other predators, is an anguish that for many victims can be unbearable."

Ritchie said the impact on the victims only increased as they grew older and became aware of what they had endured.

She said it also flew in the face of the Government's move to denounce the offending as Justice Minister Judith Collins is proposing a new bill - about to have its second reading - increasing the maximum jail terms on both charges.

Judge Falls Asleep as Victim Gives Evidence of Child Rape

A judge is being investigated after he was accused of falling asleep during a child rape trial at Manchester Crown Court, forcing it to be abandoned.

Manchester Crown Court

Barristers complained Recorder Philip Cattan fell asleep as an alleged victim was cross-examined. The trial will now be re-listed as the jury was dismissed.

The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said it was aware of the allegation and a probe was under way.

It added Mr Cattan could not comment while it was being investigated.

Mr Cattan is a recorder - a barrister who spends between 15 and 30 days a year sitting as judge.

If he is found guilty of misconduct, any disciplinary action will be decided by the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice.

The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said: "The matter is being considered in accordance with the Judicial Conduct Rules 2013."

The Crown Prosecution Service said the jury has been discharged "following an issue that arose at court during the cross examination of the first complainant in the case".

Vera Baird

"The trial will be relisted as soon as possible. The complainants and other witnesses have been kept informed."

Former solicitor general Vera Baird said she was shocked and had "real concerns" over the allegation.

She said: "It's a pretty personally insulting thing for somebody when you're describing probably the most important event in your life."

"But also what does it say about the state, about judicial governance, about the criminal justice system?"

She said it would reinforce general views that the judiciary were "out of touch".

Ms Baird said it was the public who would have to pick up the bill for the cost of two trials. Perhaps Mr Cattan should be made to pay the costs of the trial he sabotaged.

She said it was essential the trial started as soon as possible while the complainant still had the confidence to give evidence. It's horrifying enough for a victim to give evidence in a sex abuse trial. In sentencing, judges will reward perverts who have the decency to plea bargain and avoid putting the victim(s) on the stand. Now this victim will have to repeat their testimony or abandon the charges.

Mr Cattan should be made to pay the extra costs of the wasted trial, plus apologize to the victim(s) and the accused, and be barred from ever sitting on the bench again.

Ms Baird added it was important for the defendant, too, who had been left "hanging" by the incident.

Isis Fatwa Calling for Genital Mutilation of Millions of Women a Fake Apparently

Doubts are growing about the authenticity of an edict attributed to the Sunni Islamist group Isis controlling the Iraqi city of Mosul about female genital mutilation (FGM).

A top UN official quoted from a statement saying that Isis wanted all females aged between 11 and 46 in the northern city to undergo the procedure.

Jacqueline Badcock said the decree was of grave concern.

But media analysts say the decree seen on social media may be a fake.

It has typos and language mistakes and is signed by "The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant", a name the group no longer uses, instead referring to itself as the Islamic State.

Some bloggers suggest that the alleged fatwa, which has been circulated on social media for about two days, may have been aimed at discrediting Isis. Not that they need discrediting.

Jenan Moussa, a correspondent for Dubai-based broadcaster Al AAan TV, said in a tweet that her contacts in Mosul had not heard of the edict. I have seen similar statements from others with contacts in Mosul.

Isis militants seized Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, in June, and have since taken over areas of the north-west and closed in on cities near Baghdad.

The group forced Christians in Mosul out of the city earlier this week and daubed their houses with the Arabic letter N to mark them out as Christians, apparently confiscating their properties, BBC Arab affairs editor Lina Sinjab says.

Ms Badcock said only 20 families from the ancient Christian minority now remain in Mosul, which Isis has taken as the capital of its Islamic state.

Thousands have fled into Kurdish-controlled territory in the north.

Some of the Christians who remained have converted to Islam, while others have opted to stay and pay the "jiyza", the tax imposed by Isis on non-Muslims, the UN official added.

Isis announced last month that it was creating an Islamic caliphate covering the land it holds in Iraq and Syria.

Catholic Bishop Pleads Not Guilty to 45 Year Old Child Sex Abuse Charges

Davis was not an ordained priest when the incident is alleged to have occurred,
and he emphatically denies the charge

The head of the Catholic church's military diocese has briefly appeared in court charged with child sex offences dating back to 1969.

Western Australian police allege Bishop Max Davis, 68, indecently assaulted a 13-year-old boy while he was teaching at St Benedict's college in New Norcia, northeast of Perth.

It is understood he is the first Australian bishop and the most senior Australian church official to be charged with a child sex offence.

Bishop Max Davis

He has been charged with three counts of indecently dealing with children aged under 14. Davis, who now lives in the ACT, was not an ordained priest when the incident is alleged to have occurred, and he emphatically denies the charge.

On Friday in the Perth magistrates court, Davis's lawyer requested that his client not be required to turn up in person at his next appearance on 17 October and any other date on which his presence was not essential because he resided in Canberra.

The magistrate granted the request and agreed that Davis should only need to report to Belconnen police station.

Davis has stood aside from his duties while the matter is being dealt with by the court.

The Catholic Church in England and Wales has defrocked 52 priests

The Catholic Church in England and Wales has defrocked 52 priests for sexual abuse since 2001.

The National Catholic Safeguarding Commission (NCSC) also said 465 sexual assault claims were made against clergy members between 2003 and 2012.

The Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service (CSAS) said the Church had put in "robust measures" to tackle abuse.

St Peter's Square, Vatican

But it admitted it had "no real knowledge" of how many victims there were.

There are about 4,500 Catholic priests in England and Wales, according to the NCSC.

It said recent high-profile sex abuse trials had encouraged victims to come forward.

As well as the 465 allegations, 31 more members of the Church were accused of having abusive images of children, according to a decade-long study by the NCSC.

"What you never know is when a victim will have the confidence to come forward and really feel they will be listened to and something will happen," said commission chairman Danny Sullivan.

He said there had been "indefensible and inexcusable" failings to root out sex abuse, and said it could take "a generation" for trust to be recovered.

CSAS director Adrian Child said the Church had made it mandatory for all allegations to be immediately reported to police.

Priests who were not defrocked were subject to "covenants of care", which restricts what they can do in the Church, he said.

Asked about the actual scale of abuse, Mr Child added: "Often there is a time lapse of 20, 30, 40 years between the abuse and people coming forward.

"We have no real knowledge of how many people there might be who have been hurt in some way in the past."

Earlier this month, Pope Francis was quoted as saying data indicated "about 2%" of clergy in the Catholic Church were paedophiles.

Mr Child said: "That figure is not representative of the allegations against clergy in this country. The allegations we have had reported to us in this country are considerably lower than that." Considerably? Yet you have defrocked more than 1% of your priests and issued 'covenants of care' to who knows how many others. It may not be 2%, Mr Child, but it certainly is not far from it.

Peter Saunders, chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said the defrocking of priests who abuse was "encouraging".

He said: "We cannot have people in this position of huge trust and responsibility being given free rein to abuse children or vulnerable adults. I know from personal experience having spoken to many victims that there is still work to be done." Amen to that! However, this is a good step forward.

FGM Still a Problem in Kenya 13 Years After Becoming Illegal

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.

Masai women in Kameli, Kenya. Some Masai women campaigned in support
of FGM this year, even though the practice was banned in 2001

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?"