County launches FGM awareness campaigns

By JOSEPH MUCHIRI

EMBU COUNTY, KENYA: The Embu County Government has kicked off quarterly awareness campaigns meant to eliminate Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

The county will start programmes in schools where children will be taught their rights and the dangers of FGM and be sensitised on how to speak out or flee when forced into the illegal practice.

County Executive Member in charge of Gender, Children and Social Services Development Pamela Rita said men would also be targeted in a bid to eradicate the retrogressive cultural practice.

Rita said the fight against FGM has taken a new dimension after revelations that men are perpetuating the vice by ordering their wives to take their daughters for the ‘cut’.

“We have learnt that many women subjecting their daughters to FGM are merely obeying orders from their husbands. Law enforcers have been mainly arresting women and mothers and the vice does not stop. That is not the only way to go,” said Rita.

She said FGM cases reported this December were meted on girls aged eight and nine, who are not even aware they were being subjected to an illegal practice.