Accelerating Abandonment of FGM and Child Marriage in Samburu and West Pokot Counties: A UNICEF Supported Programme with Men End FGM Foundation
Men End FGM is a global award winning movement that rallies men and boys to join the quest to end FGM, child marriages and other forms of sexual and gender based violence. The movement is formally registered as Men End FGM Foundation, with its head office in Kenya’s capital city – Nairobi. Men End FGM Foundation is the leading agency in a consortium consisting of Pastoralists Child Foundation (PCF) from Samburu County and Umoja Development Organization (UDO) from West Pokot County. The consortium is being supported by UNICEF Kenya in a 12-month programme of accelerating abandonment of FGM and child marriages in the two counties of Samburu and West Pokot, specifically in Samburu East, Kapenguria and Pokot North Sub Counties. The programme is targeting more than 250,000 beneficiaries from the two counties, with at least 46,000 of them being direct beneficiaries.
According to a study by UNICEF, Samburu County has the second highest rate of female genital mutilation in Kenya, at 86 percent, which is significantly higher than the national rate of 21 percent. In Kenya, it is projected that 4 million women aged 15 to 49 have had FGM, with an additional 813,159 children at risk of FGM between 2015 and 2030. This makes a major contribution to global statistics, which indicate that more than 200 million girls and women have been cut in 30 nations. The practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) has been practiced in Samburu communities for ages. FGM affects 91 percent of girls over the age of 15 in Samburu County.
West Pokot County is located in the rift valley and is bordered to the north by Turkana, to the east by Baringo, to the south by Elgeyo Markwet and Transnzoia, and to the west by the Republic of Uganda. In West Pokot, FGM includes the partial or entire removal of the clitoris, the complete removal of the labia, and the covering of the urethra and vagina with only a small opening for urine passage. It’s regarded as a rite of passage, and many girls are compelled to marry older men soon after they’ve been mutilated. Statistics shows that FGM prevalence in West Pokot County stands at 74%, way higher than the national prevalence of 21%. The practice is predominant among the Pokot community (who are the majority residents of the county) of the Kalenjin ethnic group. Female genital mutilation and child marriage have been indicated as hindrance to girl education and overall literacy levels. West Pokot and Samburu Counties are amongst counties with the lowest literacy level in Kenya with West Pokot reporting 30 per cent while Samburu has 56 per cent literacy levels respectively compared to the national literacy level of 78.73 per cent.
Employing the human rights based approach, survivor centered approach, community centered approach and system based approach, the programme interventions are aligned to the global and national development goals including Sustainable Development Goal number 5, target 5.3 for elimination of all harmful practices, Kenya’s Vision 2030 and its Mid-Year Term Plan III, legal and policy frameworks which outlaw all forms of harmful practices and Presidential Costed Plan of Action to End FGM by 2022.
Susan Ko-Chenangat, a female genital mutilation survivor who is now a reformed cutter and has turned her back on the blade, expressed her determination to fight against the harmful cultural practice during a training session of the reformed circumcisers recently in Endough ward, West Pokot. “I confess that I will never indulge in the practice of female genital mutilation again. I feel I have committed a sin by spilling the innocent blood of young girls in the guise of preserving retrogressive traditional cultures such as female genital mutilation (FGM), which is a painful and traumatic process with long- and short-term effects to the affected girls”
Despite the fact that FGM is a human rights violation and gender discrimination against women and girls, communities who practice it believe it is necessary for the transition from childhood to womanhood, promoting the marriageability of girls and women, controlling pre-marital sex and maintaining their virginity. FGM, in reality, causes excruciating agony and can lead to chronic bleeding, infection, infertility, and death. FGM deprives girls of the opportunity to fully experience life, exposing them to health risks that may lead to future medical complications, forcing them to drop out of school, and ultimately leading to teenage pregnancies and child marriages, with Samburu County statistics showing that more than 29 percent of pregnant girls are under the age of 18 while West Pokot county reporting 26 percent of similar cases.
During a community dialogue session two weeks ago in Samburu, Naatamasi Lekoyan, an FGM survivor who is in her mid-40s shared her experience saying, “FGM affects us on a personal level; fathers who allow their daughters to be mutilated do not feel the pain or suffer the consequences. Personally, (sic) I am still experiencing the effects of FGM. Besides experiencing a lot of complications while giving birth to my children, I usually suffer backaches all the time. The pain is unbearable! Please, I beg the community to stop this practice because it has caused women to be barren and suffer lifetime complications. How I wish this program had been conducted when I was young and with my womanhood.” Naatamasi says she was forcefully mutilated when she was still a girl in 1970.
According to the UN Secretary-General, Mr. António Guterres, there is need for equal rights for women and girls across the world. He says, “We cannot achieve any of the SDGs without gender equality.”
Naatamasi Lekoyan is an example of the deeply rooted gender inequality and how girls are robbed of the right to make decisions about their bodies, and as a result, jeopardizing their future.
It’s against this backdrop that UNICEF is working with MenEndFGM, Pastoralist Child Foundation, and Umoja Development Organization in Samburu and West Pokot Counties to strengthen the child protection system by accelerating the abandonment of female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage.
The partnership aims at empowering the entire community to accelerate the elimination of FGM in the Samburu and Pokot Communities, address negative social and gender norms, keep girls in school, raise awareness of boys’ and girls’ rights, and reach out to men, boys, elders, and circumcisers to make a positive and long-lasting impact and empower women to speak out for their rights. We want to increase community involvement in child protection by educating community members about child rights, the value of education, and the consequences of female genital mutilation and child marriage.
It will need coordinated efforts to achieve our goal of improving the child protection system in Samburu and West Pokot Counties, with an emphasis on speeding the abandonment of female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage. And because a variety of factors contribute to the perpetuation of FGM, including entrenched cultural, social, and other harmful practices, and cross-border FGM among the Pokot community, it is critical to engage these community members in efforts to change social norms at the community level and strengthen community protective mechanisms to support efforts to accelerate the abandonment of FGM rather than relying solely on individual attitudes.