MPs to push for law on female genital mutilation

By Philip Mwakio And Leonard Korir

MPs will push for legislation to outlaw female genital mutilation (FGM).

While right activists backed a 25-year-plan of action to eradicate the vice, the MPs are seeking to wipe it out in five years.

Speaking at the close of a two-day meeting for MPs on capacity building on FGM and gender-related legislation, Turkana Central MP Ekwe Ethuro said the move formed part of their reform agenda.

"It is a very critical problem that cuts across the entire society where it is practised by many communities. As people’s representatives in Parliament, our role is crucial in its elimination," the MP said.

Ethuro said if the Tenth Parliament achieves the feat, it would be a resounding victory for Kenyans.

He said MPs had not only laid strategies that will include passing laws in Parliament to address the problem, but would also take the lead in fighting the practice.

"Members meeting here shall lobby aggressively and seek the enlistment of the rest of the House members during debate for FGM motions," Ethuro said.

The United Nations Population Fund country representative, Dr Kemal Mustafa, said a demographic and health survey conducted showed that for the last 10 years, there has been a decrease in FGM.

In 1998, FGM cases were at 38 per cent but declined to 32 per cent in 2003.

Mustafa said in his address to participants, who included members of the Kenya Women Parliamentary Association, that the Children Act had outlawed FGM on children under 18.

Kasarani MP and Nairobi Metropolitan Development Assistant minister, Ms Elizabeth Ongoro, said the goodwill in the 10th Parliament would help push through debate on FGM.

Meanwhile, FGM is still rife in the Maasai community despite efforts to eradicate it, Prof Sarone ole Sena of the University of Nairobi has said.

He said an estimated 94 per cent of schoolgirls in the community undergo circumcision and subsequently drop out of school.

Sena said girls as young as 12 are either forced by parents or peer pressure to get circumcised.

He said culture and high illiteracy are to blame for the practice.

Speaking in Kilgoris at a forum organised by the Free Fellowship Pentecostal Church of Kenya, Sena urged the community to discard the culture.