Africa, Development & Aid, Headlines, Health, Human Rights

RIGHTS-KENYA: A Disturbing Trend in Female Genital Mutilation

Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, Jun 8 2004 (IPS) - A society free of female genital mutilation, also referred to as female circumcision, appeared somewhat distant this week after a group of women’s rights activists accused medical personnel of carrying out the practice.

The activists made the allegation in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, Monday (June 7), after a meeting of former circumcisers organised by Equality Now, a New York-based women’s rights group. The two-day gathering brought together ex-practitioners from East and West Africa, which include regions where up to 90 percent of girls are circumcised.

“There is medicalisation of FGM (female genital mutilation) in the region, and this is jeopardising efforts to phase out FGM,” Efua Dorkenoo, a public health officer and FGM activist from Ghana, said at a press conference.

FGM involves the cutting away of part or all of a girl’s genitalia. According to the London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International, the severest form of FGM is infibulation, where the clitoris and other parts of the anatomy are removed – and the remaining surfaces stitched together to leave a small hole for passing urine and menstrual blood.

The procedure is most often performed on girls between the ages of four and eight, and is – in certain instances – associated with initiation into adulthood. Older women in the community may carry out circumcisions, as well as traditional healers, midwives and even barbers. Tin lids and pieces of broken glass are amongst the implements used to perform FGM.

Circumcisions are normally carried out without anaesthetic, and can result in infection – as well as severe pain during urination, menstruation, sexual intercourse and childbirth. Girls who undergo the procedure have also been known to die from excessive bleeding and infection.

Dorkenoo’s claims stem from research she is conducting to update a book on FGM that she wrote 10 years ago. Entitled ‘Cutting the Rose’, the work provided an overview of the extent of FGM in Africa – and highlighted steps which could be taken to eradicate the practice.

The Ghanaian activist told reporters that she had discovered medical officers in countries such as Egypt, Sudan and Kenya were becoming professional circumcisers.

“My anecdotal report says that in these countries, a lot of doctors, midwives and other health workers are performing the practice on women and girls in their health facilities,” Dorkenoo told IPS later, in an interview. FGM is banned in Kenya.

The “medicalisation of FGM” has also been referred to in earlier news reports – some of which say that circumcisions can provide a lucrative trade for physicians.

In these instances, girls from the wealthier sections of the community whose parents can afford the services of medics are circumcised in a hygienic environment. Activists fear the diminished risk of infection and the respectability accorded by a medical setting could undermine efforts to root out the custom.

However, Dorkenoo’s findings have been questioned by Kenyan authorities.

“It is true I have heard these allegations before, but we have not caught anybody doing it,” said Josephine Kibaru, Director of Reproductive Health Services at the Ministry of Health, in an interview with IPS.

“FGM is illegal and this applies even to health workers. If they are doing it, then they are doing it underground, and if we catch up with them, then they know what will happen to them.”

James Nyikal, Director of Medical Services, voiced a similar view: “As far as I know, no FGM is being done by medical personnel in Kenya. Any such thing is not to my knowledge and I would appreciate it if I got further information on this.”

According to Equality Now, FGM is practised in at least 28 African countries. Of these, only 14 have passed laws outlawing the practice. However, sometimes even this isn’t enough.

“Having laws on paper is one thing, while implementation is another. Yes, half of the countries practising FGM in Africa have laws; but (they) fail to implement them. Yet if they took advantage of the laws, the problem would reduce drastically,” said Taina Bien-Aime, Executive Director of Equality Now.

Kenya was cited as a country where laws had been used to good effect: the ban on FGM was contained in the Children’s Act passed in 2001. According to the Executive Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, Ken Wafula, his organisation has been able to rescue 53 girls recently thanks to the law.

“We have been using Section 14 of the Act which criminalizes FGM, and Section 115 which gives the civil right to anyone who comes across a girl under threat of being circumcised, to move to court. These two provisions have enabled us to obtain court orders barring anyone to touch the girls,” said Wafula at the press briefing.

In instances where laws are not in place, informal fines have sometimes been imposed. Isnino Shuriye, a former circumciser from Somalia who has been in the trade for 25 years, told journalists on Monday how she was threatened with paying 40 camels for every girl she circumcised.

“Anti-FGM campaigners in Somalia told me over and over again about the harm I was doing to young girls and women. At first I did not listen; but when they told me about the camels – and indeed I recalled the girls I had cut, and some who had haemorrhaged to death – I heeded their advice,” she said.

Shuriye has since joined the campaign to eradicate FGM.

Mariam Bagayako, a former circumciser from Mali, remembered with sadness how she had removed the genitalia of various girls and women for 10 years.

“I have now laid my knife down and I am trying to come to terms with the ills that I committed on fellow women and young girls,” she told IPS. Mali has yet to introduce legislation banning FGM.

According to Equality Now, over 130 million girls and women around the world have undergone genital mutilation, most of them from Africa.