The rising burden of Female Genital Mutilation in Murang’a County is a concern to the government.
This comes even as various stakeholders met in Nairobi on Tuesday in renewed efforts to end the vice.
FGM comprises all procedures involving the removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
Speaking during a stakeholders forum in Nairobi, the Anti-FGM Board CEO Bernadette Loloju attributed the rise in cases in Murang’a to cultism.
In most cases, it is perpetrated by people hiding under culture, mostly among older women.
“Murang’a is coming in as a very high prevalence for older women. Those are mostly because of cults. You are told your grandmother cursed you, because you are not cut that is why you have not given birth or you are unmarried,” she said.
She noted that even though the FGM trend is on a decline there is need to accelerate efforts to eliminate the vice by 2030.
Overall, in the last three decades, there has been a steady FGM decline among girls aged between 15-19 years from 49 per cent down to one-thirdF 34 per cent.
According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022, the prevalence among girls and women 15-49 years is 15 per cent translating to one in every 7 girls/women having been cut.
"What we are seeing through research and engagement with communities is that more girls are not going through FGM now because girls are aware that it is their right not to go through it," Loloju said.
Overall, there has been a steady decline in the prevalence of FGM in the last three decades; from 38 per cent in 1998 to 15 per cent in 2022 with the prevalence decreasing with an increase in the level of education.
According to Unicef, FGM is a grave violation of women's and girls’ rights, with lifelong implications.
It robs girls of their childhood, entrenches gender inequality, and causes serious physical and mental harm.
A 2020 study by the UNFPA-Unicef Joint Programme on the Elimination of FGM found that 89 percent of boys and men and 92 percent of girls and women were opposed to FGM.
Most often, FGM is practiced on girls and young women under 18 years.
FGM is not prescribed by any religion and has no health benefits but rather the practice can cause life-lasting physical and psychological trauma.
