January 2019; Narok County Commissioner shook the nerves of the anti-FGM movement in Kenya by proposing mandatory pregnancy and FGM testing. Within no time everyone was up in arms condemning the move as a gross violation of human rights, I beg not to get into this discussion as I feel his intentions are good and
Is it an Alternative Rite of Passage (ARP) or a Rescue? These two terminologies have confused many in the fight against female genital mutilation. But let’s put it clear one cannot be used for the other as they mean two totally different and unique happenings in the end FGM calendar. Rescue means to have someone
The death of a ten-year-old girl who was genitally mutilated in Somalia on July 15th 2018 and the worldwide publicity that followed has led to the first ever potential prosecution for FGM in a country with the highest rate of FGM in the world. The child died three days after she was cut when a
In July 2017 I spent two weeks in Kampala, Uganda with fifteen most amazing, brilliant and multi-talented youth drawn from ten countries of the world. This was made possible by AIDOS (Italian Association for Women in Development) in the frame work of the project, “Building Bridges between Africa and Europe to tackle FGM/C” supported by
Is the #EndFGM song getting boring to the community members? Do we need to change the tune and do a remix? Well over years’ activists have gone round and round the communities and sensitized them on the negative effects of FGM. Those who came before us sang the song and left and here we are
“By not involving men in the fight against Female Genital Mutilation is like a doctor treating the signs of a disease and ignoring the disease itself”. Most if not all the reasons as to why women undergo FGM are either directly or indirectly geared towards increasing marriageability, pleasing men, or benefiting them in one way
Female genital mutilation continues to bite in Kenya with the national prevalence currently standing at 21%. This figure is misleading though if you decided to look at individual communities with the highest averaging at 96% and many others above 50%. Anyone who has done his/her research on the ground will tell you most reasons as to
WHO defines FGM as all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons, and includes:
