NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 6 – Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji says his office will not relent in the fight against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), warning that perpetrators will face the full force of the law.
Speaking on Monday during the launch of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Manual on FGM in Garissa, Haji called on all stakeholders to play their role in eradicating the practice.
“We have put emphasis on this issue and as ODPP, we will do our part to ensure that perpetrators of this vice are prosecuted. We have put in place guidelines on how the law will be applied to everyone who will take part in this vice and on how to eradicate this barbaric menace,” Haji said.
He warned that there will be no room for an out-of-court settlement, saying the move leaves women and girls disadvantaged as negotiations are mostly made by men who do not put into consideration the victims’ desire.
“On matters to do with FGM or Gender-Based Violence (GBV), we will not allow negotiations. You all know women who have undergone FGM unwillingly as well as those who are raped deserve justice. We will not accept anything less than the perpetrators going to jail,” he said.
The SOP manual is aimed at guiding prosecutors on how to deal with FGM cases and how best to serve justice to the victims.
“Therefore, I hope that the SOPs will enhance the investigations and prosecutions of FGM and related cases and in particular will address challenges such as; hostility from practicing communities, medicalization of FGM by health professionals, low reporting of FGM cases, poor documentation of evidence in FGM cases and cross border FGM among others,” Haji said.
Anti -Female Genital Mutilation Board chairperson Agnes Mantaine called for stiffer penalties for perpetrators of the vice.
Through a speech read by the board’s director Rashid Omar, Mantaine emphasized the need for community sensitization.
“We have traversed the entire country sensitizing communities on the negative effects of the practice but still our current statistics are still dire. We are calling on all relevant authorities to join hands and ensure this vice is eliminated and those involved in it are convicted,” she said.
With the government aiming to end the menace by next year, Mantaine indicated that current statistics are still worrying in some communities.
Whereas there has been tremendous success in the fight against FGM due to the development and implementation of laws and policies on FGM, research, and learning, the vice continues to soar, putting young girls and women at risk of severe pain, excessive bleeding, and shock, swelling of genital tissue, infections, urination problems, mental health problems, and even death.
Kenya is among countries in the world where the practice is most prevalent despite efforts to end it.
According to the 2014 Kenya Demographic Health Survey (KDHS), the prevalence of FGM among women aged between 15‐49 in Kenya is about 21 percent roughly translating to about 2.75 million girls and women who have undergone the cut.
However, this is not uniform across the country as certain areas have more prevalence. The North-Eastern part of Kenya has a prevalence of over 94 percent while the western region has a low of 1 percent.
During the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 in 2019 to mark 25 years of implementing the highly ambitious International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action (PoA) that recognized sexual and reproductive health and rights as an inalienable human right, President Uhuru Kenyatta committed to ensuring zero sexual and gender-based violence and harmful practices, including zero child, early and forced marriage, as well as zero female genital mutilation by 2022.
