The Star (Nairobi)

Kenya: Government Blamed for FGM in Kuria

Two NGOs on Tuesday blamed the government for doing little to eradicate FGM in Kuria East and West districts.

The Young Women Christian Association and Education Centre for the Advancement of Women claimed that the provincial administration in the area was not supporting efforts to protect the girl child from FGM.

Speaking in Kisii during a sensitization forum organized by YWCA Kisii branch, ECAW program officer Cecilia Wangui said elders from the community contribute a lot to the rising cases of FGM by insisting that girls undergo circumcision in order to be accepted in the society. "Many girls don't finish primary because they get married immediately they are circumcised because they are forced by the parents to do so for the sake of dowry," she added. "A section of chiefs who are supposed to be at the forefront of the fight are secretly circumcising their daughters," Colleta Bwahi, a paralegal with ECAW claimed. She hailed women assistant chiefs in the area for joining the fight.

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  • Human Rights Abuse
    Jun 25 2012, 04:04

    Just as female circumcision (genital mutilation) is a despicable atrocity intended to permanently reduce the sexual sensation of women, so too, male circumcision is nothing but penile-sexual reduction surgery (genital mutilation) intended to permanently reduce the sexual sensation/function of men. Circumcision under false pretences is a human rights’ violation. Circumcision of children is criminal sexual child abuse. http://www.cirp.org/library/sex_function/