“It’s a risky business and that is the first information I give to Somali migrant parents when they visit my office,” Abdi said. “They are ready to pay anything to mitigate the risk and ensure their daughters undergo the rite.”
FGM is considered by some communities as a way to prepare girls for adulthood and is often motivated by the belief that it reduces a woman’s libido and discourages sexual activity before marriage, according to the World Health Organization.
No Benefits
More than a quarter of girls and women have undergone genital cutting in Kenya, one of 29 countries in which it is practiced, according to Unicef. Globally, at least 125 million girls and women have been circumcised, according to the World Health Organization. There are no known health benefits to the procedure.
“Many factors like corruption, weak law enforcement and well-oiled cartels in various Kenyan towns are behind the rising number” of people coming to northern Kenya to have the cut administered, said Amran Abdundi, a program coordinator at women’s-rights organization Frontier Indigenous Network. “The law has been enacted, but enforcing it needs resources and strong goodwill from law enforcement agencies.”
The most basic form of the practice involves the partial or total removal of the clitoris. Two more extreme forms include the cutting of the labia and the narrowing of the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal, a process known as infibulation, or pharaonic circumcision. All three types are carried out Kenya. One in five Somali women and girls have undergone infibulation, according to Unicef.
Thorns, Sticks
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