The Star (Nairobi)

Kenya: 90 Kuria Girls Saved From FGM

Photo: IRIN
An increasing number of Kenyan men speak out against FGM (file photo).

More than 90 teenage girls in Kuria East and West districts have been rescued from Female Genital Mutilation.

The girls fled their homes after their parents and villagers told them they would be circumcised this 'season'.

The children's department took them to Komotobo Catholic Mission in Kuria East, where they are staying.Hundreds of girls from the Abanyabasi and Abairege clans have been taken to neighbouring Tanzania to undergo the traditional rites banned by the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Bill, 2010.

Kuria East deputy children's officer Patrobah Ondieki said parents fear arrest in Kenya."To date in Kuria East district over 300 girls are feared to have been forced to face the rite and we only managed to save the 90 girls at the rescue centre. But after the arrest of the only circumciser in the district the rite has been halted temporarily," Ondieki said.

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InFocus

Kenyan Men Join Fight Against FGM

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An increasing number of men belonging to ethnic groups that practice female genital mutilation are speaking out against the now illegal practice. Read more »