The COVID-19 pandemic has left families in Kenya faced with hardships due to a lack of income, pushing some of the community members to perform female genital mutilation (FGM) on their daughters in order to marry them off to gain dowry.
Nine years ago, Kenya banned FGM with a punishment of three years imprisonment and a US$2,000 fine, but the practice persists as some communities see it is necessary for social acceptance and increasing their daughters’ marriage prospects.
According to United Nations “One in five women and girls aged between 15 and 49 in Kenya have undergone the procedure, which usually involves the partial or total removal of the female genitalia and can cause a host of serious health problems”.
Bernadette Loloju, Chief Executive of The Semi-autonomous Government Agency Anti-FGM Board said she received reports that scores of girls had been forced to undergo FGM in Kenya’s northern Samburu county after schools closed on March 16.
“We did not find any evidence girls had FGM performed on them. We did confirm one girl who was at risk and a case is registered with the police, and her mother has been arrested. We don’t want to take any chances. We have to be vigilant which is why we are trying to step up efforts in light of this pandemic,” said Loloju.
To salvage the girls, authorities deployed village chiefs and community workers to visit rural homesteads and report cases where girls may be at risk.
“It’s good to see the Anti-FGM Board is beefing up community vigilance. But we also need police to register cases. At the moment, the police are too occupied with enforcing restrictions related to the coronavirus,” said Felister Gitonga, Programme Officer for Equality Now.
