It is said to be Africa's largest human trafficking syndicate. Its route stretches all the way from Southern Ethiopia to South Africa. It is an illegal trade involving immigration officers and human traffickers, churning up to 200 millions shillings from desperate Ethiopians, fleeing economic hardship. Some make it in through that long journey south, while others end up in Kenyan jails. In the first of a three-part series, 'Dreams and Nightmares,' NTV's Yassin Juma begins our coverage of this illicit trade from the border town of Moyale.
In our second part of the investigative series Dreams and Nightmares, Yassin Juma crosses over into Ethiopia to track down the traffickers and get to the core of the illegal trade of human trafficking. The main trafficker, a feared man of Ethiopian nationality, is unmasked.
450,000 shillings an hour for an immigration officer !!!! at current rates that is around 5625 u.s dollars an hour!!!
In the last of our three part investigative series, Dreams and Nightmares, Yassin Juma and Mustafa Mwalim are arrested on their way from Ethiopia as powerful men behind the human trafficking trade become uncomfortable with their presence. The two NTV reporters later manage to track down illegal aliens from Moyale, Marsabit and Isiolo into their hideouts in Nairobi.
My question is where are the hiding thousands of women and children?
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
16 children from Congo rescued from human traffickers in Kenya.
Sixteen children and two adults from the Democratic Republic of Congo were rescued from alleged traffickers after they were found stranded at the Railways Station bus terminus. The sixteen say they are refugees who had taken a four day trip to seek asylum in Kenya but children's rights NGO The Cradle believe they were about to be trafficked and Mashua voice for the voiceless agree that they are victims of human trafficking. Police are investigating the matter.
Human trafficking is very much on the rise and corruption is fueling the trade.
Human trafficking is very much on the rise and corruption is fueling the trade.
Human trafficking syndicate thriving under Kenyan Govt. watch
Following NTV's unmasking of probably Africa's largest human trafficking syndicate that has seen hundreds of Ethiopians being smuggled to South Africa through Kenya, questions are now being about who should take responsibility for abetting this illegal trade. While immigration and police officers at Moyale's border point continue to mint millions of shillings out of this illicit trade,
I wonder where they are hiding the female victims:(
I wonder where they are hiding the female victims:(
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Young girls hide in forest to evade mutilator's knife some are not so lucky I wish we could do more:( please read and share
Two sisters have been taking refuge at a forest in Marakwet West District for three days to escape forced mutilation.
A vegetable vendor on Tuesday found the two in the middle of Kamotony Forest in Marakwet West District.
"I spotted them conversing in low tones in the heart of the forest and they told me their predicament," said the vendor, who requested not to be named for fear of reprisal from the community.(Even helping with accommodation to the innocent kids you are considered a traitor:)
It, however, took the better part of the day to persuade the girls to accept to go and stay with her.
"The girls suspected the vendor could inform their parents of their whereabouts. They were reluctant to accept her help," said Newton Chebii, a resident.
The girls, aged 14 and 16, are in Form Two at Cheptulon High School. They fled home on Saturday when they learnt they were to be circumcised the following day.
Their mother had reportedly prepared them for the rite, but the girls are said to have maintained they would not go through with it.
It was alleged the mother had reportedly threatened not to pay their school fees should they refuse to be mutilated.
The minors are said to have reported the matter to Provincial Administration officials who did not take action. (Am not surprised because the authorities in Kenya take no action)
On the material day, their mother sought help from other women to lock them in the house so that they would not escape.
"We heard a commotion and came out in the darkness to find out what was happening," said a neighbour.
Marakwet Children’s Officer Peter Kutere declined to comment on the matter...(ooh I wonder why?)
Residents appealed to local DC John Ondego to intervene as many girls in the area were at risk of undergoing the illegal rite(Atrocity).
FORCED RITUAL
Forced mutilation continues unabated, despite the Government’s declaration that the ritual is illegal.
By last week, more than 20 underage girls had been forced to undergo the atrocious ritual in Kuria West and Kuria East districts.
And in Rift Valley(Where I come from so far Mashua voice for the voiceless international have rescued 66 girls they are safe and we never disclose the hideouts or even name names because it is so risky for the girls and our grass root rescuers aka(Snatchers) , hundreds of schoolgirls have been subjected to FGM’ in the past week.( so sad that the number have gone down but it feels so hopeless now:((..sometimes I just want to give up!! but I keep on moving one girl at a time..I pray if we could only save 100 girls by the end of year....
In Marakwet alone, reports indicate more than a thousand girls have undergone the outlawed rite, and hundreds more lined up for the mutilation before Christmas.
Last week, 42 girls were reported to have fled their homes due to forced mutilation in Marakwet West District.
In West Pokot, more than 200 girls have undergone the ‘FGM’ despite of the alternative rite of passage invention:(.
Residents say that in most instances, mutilation ceremonies are held at night away from prying eyes of rights activists, provincial administrators and the clergy.(I told you I know my people during the day they will put on a different face to impress a guest..wait the guest goes away and the night comes......
Fighting FGM by all means!
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
A vegetable vendor on Tuesday found the two in the middle of Kamotony Forest in Marakwet West District.
"I spotted them conversing in low tones in the heart of the forest and they told me their predicament," said the vendor, who requested not to be named for fear of reprisal from the community.(Even helping with accommodation to the innocent kids you are considered a traitor:)
It, however, took the better part of the day to persuade the girls to accept to go and stay with her.
"The girls suspected the vendor could inform their parents of their whereabouts. They were reluctant to accept her help," said Newton Chebii, a resident.
The girls, aged 14 and 16, are in Form Two at Cheptulon High School. They fled home on Saturday when they learnt they were to be circumcised the following day.
Their mother had reportedly prepared them for the rite, but the girls are said to have maintained they would not go through with it.
It was alleged the mother had reportedly threatened not to pay their school fees should they refuse to be mutilated.
The minors are said to have reported the matter to Provincial Administration officials who did not take action. (Am not surprised because the authorities in Kenya take no action)
On the material day, their mother sought help from other women to lock them in the house so that they would not escape.
"We heard a commotion and came out in the darkness to find out what was happening," said a neighbour.
Marakwet Children’s Officer Peter Kutere declined to comment on the matter...(ooh I wonder why?)
Residents appealed to local DC John Ondego to intervene as many girls in the area were at risk of undergoing the illegal rite(Atrocity).
FORCED RITUAL
Forced mutilation continues unabated, despite the Government’s declaration that the ritual is illegal.
By last week, more than 20 underage girls had been forced to undergo the atrocious ritual in Kuria West and Kuria East districts.
And in Rift Valley(Where I come from so far Mashua voice for the voiceless international have rescued 66 girls they are safe and we never disclose the hideouts or even name names because it is so risky for the girls and our grass root rescuers aka(Snatchers) , hundreds of schoolgirls have been subjected to FGM’ in the past week.( so sad that the number have gone down but it feels so hopeless now:((..sometimes I just want to give up!! but I keep on moving one girl at a time..I pray if we could only save 100 girls by the end of year....
In Marakwet alone, reports indicate more than a thousand girls have undergone the outlawed rite, and hundreds more lined up for the mutilation before Christmas.
Last week, 42 girls were reported to have fled their homes due to forced mutilation in Marakwet West District.
In West Pokot, more than 200 girls have undergone the ‘FGM’ despite of the alternative rite of passage invention:(.
Residents say that in most instances, mutilation ceremonies are held at night away from prying eyes of rights activists, provincial administrators and the clergy.(I told you I know my people during the day they will put on a different face to impress a guest..wait the guest goes away and the night comes......
Fighting FGM by all means!
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
Monday, November 15, 2010
Strong girls who said NO TO FGM in Kenya Garissa district. courtsey of NTV and Mashua Against FGM by Siasa bora
Early marriage and female genital mutilation has been party and parcel of the Somali community in Kenya. But one group of girls has defied this old time tradition and found a place to call home.
This is permanent rescue girls don't need to go back:).This is what am talking about<3.
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocacy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and standing up for Women’s Rights.
And the Chairperson of a worldwide campaign against FGM.
http://twitter.com/Mashua
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mashua-Against-FGM/225406701415
This is permanent rescue girls don't need to go back:).This is what am talking about<3.
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocacy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and standing up for Women’s Rights.
And the Chairperson of a worldwide campaign against FGM.
http://twitter.com/Mashua
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mashua-Against-FGM/225406701415
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
An atrocious doctor Dix Poppas and his crew at Cornell performing FGM in USA and then sexually molesting the children:((.
I never thought I will bring this up again but this doctor is getting publicity he doesn't deserve!!!!!
He should be in jail !!!!!
People are horrified by the disgusting mutilations of girls in foreign lands and it is entirely justifiable. Wee ones have their future lady parts mutilated, burned, and sutured due to local customs or parental pursuit of "normalcy". It is not a part of any specific religion, it is locational, with little ladies tortured to fit unrealistic norms and to stunt their sexuality. Female Genital Mutilation is a hot button issue for sure, but it seems like something confined to foreign lands. But it is not. It is here in North America under the guise of medical research and profit.
Dr. Dix Poppas and his crew at Cornell University have been operating on girls between 3 and 6 months of age who they deem to have "oversized" clitorises. While he claims that the procedures are "nerve sparing", they are absolutely unnecessary and cause serious emotional and physical distress. During the operations, which promise to cure future masturbation or gender "abnormalities" (see: homosexuality) , the glans is excised and tossed away and the tip of the clitoris is sewn back on. If you think of a clitoris as a little penis (which is basically what it is) it is akin to someone hacking off your penis ( men) and sewing only the head back on. (Feel free to cross your legs right now.)
But if this isn't appalling enough for you, then comes the "aftercare" research. Beginning around age six, the doctor begins checking to see if the nerves have been damaged. How does he do this? (This would be the time to grab your barf bag) The doctor begins stimulating the little girl's lady bits with a cotton tip and vibrator . The little girl is touched not only on the mutilated member, but her thighs and every possible part of her netheregions. She will be asked to rate the level of sensation in all areas to determine if Dr. Poppas has destroyed anything, which he clearly has. The perverted examinations are conducted on a yearly basis afterward. I get that it may have some "research" value, but this can only be incredibly psychologically damaging. It's not like you can put the damaged tissue back since the doctor threw it in a waste bin years prior. The child is involuntarily damaged and then humiliated for a lifetime because some doctor thinks that some clitorises are too large.:( He is a child molester in disguise as a doctor/perve!
Children come in all shapes and sizes and so do their little bits. I've heard many a dad proud of his little boy's outward development because infants' genitals seem disproportionate compared to those of adults. There are NO parents lining up to have their boys' stalks shortened. They are KIDS and little girls don't go around checking other girls crotches to see if they are "normal". Children should never be used as experimental playthings, not to mention have their most sensitive areas lopped off and then molested because some deviant wants a grant.
Parents often trust doctors as being a higher authority on health matters, but it is clear to me that the only way of assuring normal psychological and sexual development would be to leave your little girls alone. Not only are these procedures damaging in the short-term, they essentially assure that your future Mrs. Someone is not going to have a great time making your grandbabies. It is the ultimate responsibility of parents to reject requests by doctors to cosmetically alter their infants, and while it might be difficult to turn down a man with 3 PhDs, it is your job.
Whether overseas or on our shores, destruction of the bodies and emotional wellbeing of little girls occurs because we are too obsessed with gender norms and cannot leave well enough alone. Masturbation is not a physical or mental disease and just because girls might enjoy it is no reason to ruin their entire sexual lives. The psychological effects of mutilation and subsequent molestation are so well known that these draconian procedures must be halted immediately and everywhere they occur. There is nothing ethical about involuntary genitotorture. Whether conducted by a shard of glass in Egypt or with a scalpel in America, you KNOW this is wrong.
Protect your now and future daughters.
Thank you to Dan Savage, Alice Dreger, and Ellen K. Feder. To review Drs. Dreger and Feder's report on the bioethics of FGM .
The question is whether Female Genital Mutilation is still legal in united states:( in any form of disguise?
I say this doctor and the likes of him should never be allowed to have their license back (if revoked) and should serve a jail term!!! please tell me what are your thoughts....
Fighting FGM by all means!Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless InternationalAssisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasyThe Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
He should be in jail !!!!!
People are horrified by the disgusting mutilations of girls in foreign lands and it is entirely justifiable. Wee ones have their future lady parts mutilated, burned, and sutured due to local customs or parental pursuit of "normalcy". It is not a part of any specific religion, it is locational, with little ladies tortured to fit unrealistic norms and to stunt their sexuality. Female Genital Mutilation is a hot button issue for sure, but it seems like something confined to foreign lands. But it is not. It is here in North America under the guise of medical research and profit.
Dr. Dix Poppas and his crew at Cornell University have been operating on girls between 3 and 6 months of age who they deem to have "oversized" clitorises. While he claims that the procedures are "nerve sparing", they are absolutely unnecessary and cause serious emotional and physical distress. During the operations, which promise to cure future masturbation or gender "abnormalities" (see: homosexuality) , the glans is excised and tossed away and the tip of the clitoris is sewn back on. If you think of a clitoris as a little penis (which is basically what it is) it is akin to someone hacking off your penis ( men) and sewing only the head back on. (Feel free to cross your legs right now.)
But if this isn't appalling enough for you, then comes the "aftercare" research. Beginning around age six, the doctor begins checking to see if the nerves have been damaged. How does he do this? (This would be the time to grab your barf bag) The doctor begins stimulating the little girl's lady bits with a cotton tip and vibrator . The little girl is touched not only on the mutilated member, but her thighs and every possible part of her netheregions. She will be asked to rate the level of sensation in all areas to determine if Dr. Poppas has destroyed anything, which he clearly has. The perverted examinations are conducted on a yearly basis afterward. I get that it may have some "research" value, but this can only be incredibly psychologically damaging. It's not like you can put the damaged tissue back since the doctor threw it in a waste bin years prior. The child is involuntarily damaged and then humiliated for a lifetime because some doctor thinks that some clitorises are too large.:( He is a child molester in disguise as a doctor/perve!
Children come in all shapes and sizes and so do their little bits. I've heard many a dad proud of his little boy's outward development because infants' genitals seem disproportionate compared to those of adults. There are NO parents lining up to have their boys' stalks shortened. They are KIDS and little girls don't go around checking other girls crotches to see if they are "normal". Children should never be used as experimental playthings, not to mention have their most sensitive areas lopped off and then molested because some deviant wants a grant.
Parents often trust doctors as being a higher authority on health matters, but it is clear to me that the only way of assuring normal psychological and sexual development would be to leave your little girls alone. Not only are these procedures damaging in the short-term, they essentially assure that your future Mrs. Someone is not going to have a great time making your grandbabies. It is the ultimate responsibility of parents to reject requests by doctors to cosmetically alter their infants, and while it might be difficult to turn down a man with 3 PhDs, it is your job.
Whether overseas or on our shores, destruction of the bodies and emotional wellbeing of little girls occurs because we are too obsessed with gender norms and cannot leave well enough alone. Masturbation is not a physical or mental disease and just because girls might enjoy it is no reason to ruin their entire sexual lives. The psychological effects of mutilation and subsequent molestation are so well known that these draconian procedures must be halted immediately and everywhere they occur. There is nothing ethical about involuntary genitotorture. Whether conducted by a shard of glass in Egypt or with a scalpel in America, you KNOW this is wrong.
Protect your now and future daughters.
Thank you to Dan Savage, Alice Dreger, and Ellen K. Feder. To review Drs. Dreger and Feder's report on the bioethics of FGM .
The question is whether Female Genital Mutilation is still legal in united states:( in any form of disguise?
I say this doctor and the likes of him should never be allowed to have their license back (if revoked) and should serve a jail term!!! please tell me what are your thoughts....
Fighting FGM by all means!Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless InternationalAssisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasyThe Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
Monday, November 1, 2010
In Africa Season of plenty and Christmas holidays brings misery for teenage girls ..FGM seasons
As soon as the long rains begin, many walk hundreds of kilometres to find rescue in bid to escape fgm. some falls into the wrong hands.
Fifteen-year-old, Elizabeth Loengetunya dreads the long rains season.
Although residents of East Pokot revere it as a time of plenty, the Standard Six pupil at Choru Primary School would rather the three-month period was scrapped from the calendar, or that the rains would incessantly fail.
It is a sentiment she shares with most of her age-mates, who during the long rains that normally fall in April, May and June are forced to undergo the age-old practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) to prepare them for marriage.
The season of plenty is also the time when schoolgirls as young as 10 get married off, some to men as old as their grand fathers.
“I would rather die than be mutilated. Once mutilated, a girl is forced to leave school and get married,” Elizabeth says bitterly.
Threatened
Two years ago, her mother fled from her matrimonial home when her husband threatened to kill her for resisting his plans to force Elizabeth, who was then 12, to undergo mutilation and get married to a man he had already identified.
“My father almost killed my mother because she would not let him have his way... He had already negotiated and got part of the bride price,” she says.
They now share a small hut in Chepelo Village, provided by a sympathetic relative. They have no land and sell goat and camel milk to make ends meet.
“My father lives with my eldest brother and one of my sisters. I am afraid he might marry her off instead because she is already eight,” Elizabeth says.
Mini-exodus
In Nginya’ng, 100 kilometres from Chepelo, Reverend Christopher Chochoi of the Anglican Church also views the rainy season with foreboding.
The cleric and his wife, Nelly, run the Cana Rescue Centre, which was started in 2005 to shelter girls fleeing their homes because of FGM.
As the first of the grey rain clouds touch the hilltops in the East, a mini exodus of teenage girls begins, all on a journey towards Cana.
They walk hundreds of kilometres to get there, and even though they are aware that some will be turned away, the mere thought of what awaits them if they stay in their homes is enough to strengthen their resolve to get away.
From Loruk, where the tarmac road ends, it is an agonising one-hour drive through to Nginya’ng. When we get to the centre in Rev Chochoi’s compound, he is not at home but his wife shows us around.
“The long rains season is a time of absolute madness. We usually get hundreds of girls, some from as far as El Chamus, Laikipia and Samburu,” Mrs Chochoi says.
“They all want to be admitted to the centre, even though we have limited space. We are forced to turn most of them away after the FGM period because we cannot afford to shelter them all.”
The centre currently houses 59 girls, 26 of whom are in secondary school. They are clothed, fed and their school fees paid.
Mrs Chochoi shows us a grass thatched hut, previously used as a kitchen, where the first girl was housed.
“Her name was Antonine Chebet and she was in Class Seven. She walked 300 kilometres for two weeks to our home because she believed the reverend would save her. She told us that her father was forcing her to undergo the cut then get married to an old man.”
Antonine opened the floodgates and more girls started pouring into the couple’s home.
“When they heard that the reverend’s home was open to girls fleeing FGM, they came in droves. In 2005, with the help of a missionary society in America, we built the first hostel for the girls and admitted 10 of them as full-time boarders.”
Mrs Chochoi says the Pokot view girls as a source of wealth and marry them off as soon as they start to develop breasts.
“For the girls, this centre is a source of hope. My prayer is that as many of them as possible are opened in future so that our girls can study in peace,” she says.
Currently, the Jomo Kenyatta Foundation is supporting five girls in various schools, including Loreto High School, Limuru, and Moi Girls High School, Eldoret.
Community leaders are also being targeted in the fight to help girls.
he Churo Division education officer, Ms Joyce Kamain, says that her office has started an education programme for community leaders, to enlighten them on the negative effects of FGM.
“Most of our girls go to school only up to Standard Four because of FGM and forced early marriages. To reverse this trend, we need to teach our people that there is a productive life for girls beyond marriage,” she says.
Stem the tide
Organisations such as ActionAid Kenya have also stepped in to stem the tide of the destructive practice.
The non-governmental organisation is in the process of building boarding facilities in primary and secondary schools in the area to double up as shelters for girls escaping FGM.
“We are beginning to see some change. In the last three years, enrolment for girls has shot up by 200 per cent. About 20 per cent of the girls in East Pokot do not undergo the rite nowadays. Our aim now is to reach out to the remaining 80 per cent,” says ActionAid vice-chairman Hala Ikedido.
He adds that only education will save the community from the stranglehold of FGM.
Area MP Asman Kamama, who is also the Higher Education assistant minister, recently gave Sh1.3 million from the Constituency Development Fund kitty to primary and secondary schools in the area to boost education standards.
Mr Kamama says that FGM is “persistent” among the Pokot and eradicating it will be a “herculean task”.
“We are fighting the practice through the help of churches and community organisations,” he says.
And I say we continue with boosting education and building more rescue centers where girls can live permanently not just for few weeks then they go back to the homes they abandoned? the punishment becomes more severe and most girls commit suicide in the process. more boarding schools could work and also taking lawful steps to the parents who subject their daughters or who threaten others who are against FGM.
Mashua voice for the voiceless is planning to build boarding schools which doubles as rescue centers.
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless InternationalAssisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasyThe Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
Fifteen-year-old, Elizabeth Loengetunya dreads the long rains season.
Although residents of East Pokot revere it as a time of plenty, the Standard Six pupil at Choru Primary School would rather the three-month period was scrapped from the calendar, or that the rains would incessantly fail.
It is a sentiment she shares with most of her age-mates, who during the long rains that normally fall in April, May and June are forced to undergo the age-old practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) to prepare them for marriage.
The season of plenty is also the time when schoolgirls as young as 10 get married off, some to men as old as their grand fathers.
“I would rather die than be mutilated. Once mutilated, a girl is forced to leave school and get married,” Elizabeth says bitterly.
Threatened
Two years ago, her mother fled from her matrimonial home when her husband threatened to kill her for resisting his plans to force Elizabeth, who was then 12, to undergo mutilation and get married to a man he had already identified.
“My father almost killed my mother because she would not let him have his way... He had already negotiated and got part of the bride price,” she says.
They now share a small hut in Chepelo Village, provided by a sympathetic relative. They have no land and sell goat and camel milk to make ends meet.
“My father lives with my eldest brother and one of my sisters. I am afraid he might marry her off instead because she is already eight,” Elizabeth says.
Mini-exodus
In Nginya’ng, 100 kilometres from Chepelo, Reverend Christopher Chochoi of the Anglican Church also views the rainy season with foreboding.
The cleric and his wife, Nelly, run the Cana Rescue Centre, which was started in 2005 to shelter girls fleeing their homes because of FGM.
As the first of the grey rain clouds touch the hilltops in the East, a mini exodus of teenage girls begins, all on a journey towards Cana.
They walk hundreds of kilometres to get there, and even though they are aware that some will be turned away, the mere thought of what awaits them if they stay in their homes is enough to strengthen their resolve to get away.
From Loruk, where the tarmac road ends, it is an agonising one-hour drive through to Nginya’ng. When we get to the centre in Rev Chochoi’s compound, he is not at home but his wife shows us around.
“The long rains season is a time of absolute madness. We usually get hundreds of girls, some from as far as El Chamus, Laikipia and Samburu,” Mrs Chochoi says.
“They all want to be admitted to the centre, even though we have limited space. We are forced to turn most of them away after the FGM period because we cannot afford to shelter them all.”
The centre currently houses 59 girls, 26 of whom are in secondary school. They are clothed, fed and their school fees paid.
Mrs Chochoi shows us a grass thatched hut, previously used as a kitchen, where the first girl was housed.
“Her name was Antonine Chebet and she was in Class Seven. She walked 300 kilometres for two weeks to our home because she believed the reverend would save her. She told us that her father was forcing her to undergo the cut then get married to an old man.”
Antonine opened the floodgates and more girls started pouring into the couple’s home.
“When they heard that the reverend’s home was open to girls fleeing FGM, they came in droves. In 2005, with the help of a missionary society in America, we built the first hostel for the girls and admitted 10 of them as full-time boarders.”
Mrs Chochoi says the Pokot view girls as a source of wealth and marry them off as soon as they start to develop breasts.
“For the girls, this centre is a source of hope. My prayer is that as many of them as possible are opened in future so that our girls can study in peace,” she says.
Currently, the Jomo Kenyatta Foundation is supporting five girls in various schools, including Loreto High School, Limuru, and Moi Girls High School, Eldoret.
Community leaders are also being targeted in the fight to help girls.
he Churo Division education officer, Ms Joyce Kamain, says that her office has started an education programme for community leaders, to enlighten them on the negative effects of FGM.
“Most of our girls go to school only up to Standard Four because of FGM and forced early marriages. To reverse this trend, we need to teach our people that there is a productive life for girls beyond marriage,” she says.
Stem the tide
Organisations such as ActionAid Kenya have also stepped in to stem the tide of the destructive practice.
The non-governmental organisation is in the process of building boarding facilities in primary and secondary schools in the area to double up as shelters for girls escaping FGM.
“We are beginning to see some change. In the last three years, enrolment for girls has shot up by 200 per cent. About 20 per cent of the girls in East Pokot do not undergo the rite nowadays. Our aim now is to reach out to the remaining 80 per cent,” says ActionAid vice-chairman Hala Ikedido.
He adds that only education will save the community from the stranglehold of FGM.
Area MP Asman Kamama, who is also the Higher Education assistant minister, recently gave Sh1.3 million from the Constituency Development Fund kitty to primary and secondary schools in the area to boost education standards.
Mr Kamama says that FGM is “persistent” among the Pokot and eradicating it will be a “herculean task”.
“We are fighting the practice through the help of churches and community organisations,” he says.
And I say we continue with boosting education and building more rescue centers where girls can live permanently not just for few weeks then they go back to the homes they abandoned? the punishment becomes more severe and most girls commit suicide in the process. more boarding schools could work and also taking lawful steps to the parents who subject their daughters or who threaten others who are against FGM.
Mashua voice for the voiceless is planning to build boarding schools which doubles as rescue centers.
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless InternationalAssisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasyThe Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
Thursday, October 21, 2010
http://www.facebook.com/notes/mashua-against-fgm/with-maasai-in-east-africa-tribe-female-genital-mutilation-is-100/117787008281934
Mutilating girls is something our people have done for hundreds of years," Nashiru, the senior FGM 'surgeon' in the Maasai community of Ol Donyo Nyokie, told IRIN. "No one can convince us that it is wrong."
Like all six FGM practitioners who carry out hundreds of procedures every year in and around the community, Nashiru sincerely believes in the virtues of FGM.
The women believe that an unmutilated woman has sexual feelings for every man she comes across, and is likely to stray from her marriage. In fact, they see FGM as a tool to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS in their community.
"When you mutilate a girl, you know she will remain pure until she gets married, and that after marriage, she will be faithful," Nashiru explained. "But when you leave a girl unmutilated, she sleeps with any man and brings the disease into the community."
Asked about cleanliness during the procedure, the women said nowadays they used a different disposable razor blade for each girl, instead of the traditional use of one knife to mutilated several girls. In addition, they now used gloves, and had replaced the cowhide base sheet with a plastic one.
Toshi Mahmoud, was mutilated just a month ago, is 11 years old and still has the bright-eyed curiosity and boundless energy of a young girl. She does well in school, is popular with her friends, and seems to have a happy, carefree existence.
Born into the very traditional community of Ol Donyo Nyokie in central Kenya's Kajiado district, Toshi had no qualms about relating her own experience, but winced as she recalled the pain she endured when the practitioner sliced her clitoris off.
"She [the surgeon] slept in the same bed as me the night before. My mother woke me up at six o'clock in the morning and poured a bucket of ice-cold water over me, and then I was taken back into the hut and was mutilated," she said in Kiswahili.
At just 11 years of age, Toshi is below the traditional age of mutilated, but said that often, when the oldest girl came of age, her parents might have all her younger sisters mutilated to save the cost of having several ceremonies.
She said she dreaded the pain, but looked forward to 'becoming a woman' - she wanted to be mutilated because it would make her more acceptable in the eyes of her peers and her community.
"If you are not mutilated, no one wants to talk to you; the girls and boys in school laugh at you because you are still a child," she told IRIN. "No man will want to marry or have sex with you if you are not mutilated."
But Toshi said that despite her own willingness to be mutilated, she did not support the practice of FGM, and insisted that she would not permit her own children to be mutilated.
"We are taught in our school health club that FGM is a harmful practice, and I wish the Maasai would stop forcing girls to do it," she said.
Several mutilated teenage girls in Ol Donyo Nyokie told IRIN they would never put their own children through FGM, having been educated about the dangers of the practice. They were adamant that they would not bow to the community's pressure to have their daughters mutilated, as many of their parents had.
Toshi and her friends, who were all mutilated in the same month, described how their wounds were coated with a paste made from cow dung and milk fat to stop the bleeding and accelerate healing; all maintained they had healed perfectly, and said they had never heard of any deaths or health complications arising from the operation.
However, the head teacher of the Ol Donyo Nyokie Primary School, Rebbeca Pateli, told IRIN there had been several incidents of injury and even death from FGM.
"You hear of girls who die, but there is never an admission that it was FGM-related. The practice is so hidden that it is hard to know how many, but they do get sick, and some die," she said.
Pateli, an ardent anti-FGM campaigner, painfully narrated how she was forced to circumcise her own daughter when the community threatened to ostracise her and her family. "I had hardened, but my girl was under so much pressure from her peers and elderly women that she eventually begged me to take her for the procedure," Pateli recounted.
The young men in the community, known as 'moran', or warriors, strongly believe that FGM is a useful practice that keeps women chaste. "I am married to a woman who is mutilated, and will be mutilating my daughter when the time comes," Kapande ole Saitoti, an Ol Donyo Nyokie moran, told IRIN. "You cannot claim to be a Maasai man or woman if you are not mutilated."
In fact, the girls in the community reported that men were the biggest hindrance to the fight against FGM, because they continued to reject women who were unmutilated.
Change in Ol Donyo Nyokie is slow, but it is happening. More sanitary conditions during the procedure means fewer women suffer hygiene-related complications, and the use of a different blade for each girl has mutilated down the risk of passing on infections, such as HIV.
Samson Ntore, a community-based health worker with the African Medical Research Foundation, said most practitioners in Ol Donyo Nyokie had greatly reduced the severity of the mutilated, and merely made a symbolic incision rather than removing the entire clitoris. However, the women could not make this public knowledge, for fear of the repercussions if they were found to be shirking their duties.
The Ol Donyo Nyokie community is a society fighting to cling to their ways in the face of pressure to change from all sides. Most of them support education, and education tells them to abandon FGM. Today, the prevalence rate of FGM in this community is 100 percent. But the young girls of the community insist that their daughters will never have to undergo the painful procedure.
The Maasai and FGM
The Maasai are a nomadic community who move around several districts in central Kenya and northern Tanzania in search of pasture and water for their animals. Kenyan Maasai number about 377,000. They are a proud people who have steadfastly clung to their traditional values and customs, despite the fact that most other communities around them have been influenced in one way or another by modernisation and western culture.
Their lives revolve predominantly around their cattle, on which they depend for meat, milk and blood - the main components of their diet. As they have no need of the food grown by other communities, they have been less exposed to the influence of other cultures, and have therefore been able to maintain their traditions.
While admirable, the strength of Maasai culture makes it resistant to change, especially traditions as deeply ingrained as the practice of FGM. Like many other cultures, the Maasai have myths about their origins, and the origins of their customs and traditions.
Folklore explains the origin of female genital mutilation in the story of Naipei, a young girl who had intercourse with the enemy of her family, and whose punishment came in the form of mutilation, a decision her family took to prevent her from feeling the urges that had led her to commit the crime.
Since that day, in a bid to protect their honour and the honour of the Maasai society, all Maasai girls who reach adolescence have been mutilated. The aim of FGM is therefore to limit the sexual desire and promiscuity of girls.
The ceremony of FGM marks the coming of age of a girl; she sheds the last vestiges of childhood and joins the league of womankind. It is traditionally performed between the ages of 9 and 14 and is part of the traditional rites of passage for girls, in order for them to be considered adults in their community. A 2005 survey of the Maasai community in Ol Donyo Nyokie (population: 665), found that 100 percent of girls above the age of 15 had undergone FGM.
Following the ceremony there is a period of seclusion, during which girls are educated about their rights and duties as women - they learn how to prepare food, take care of a home and children, and how to look after their future husbands. Once this period is over, a girl is considered an honourable woman and is free to marry.
The importance of this practice among the Maasai is considerable. FGM is perceived as bringing honour to a girl and to her family; by making her eligible for marriage it raises the status of her family in the eyes of society. The Maasai have held to the custom in the face of widespread criticism by Kenyan society and the international community, and despite criminalisation of the practice by the Kenyan government in 2002.
FGM ceremony
Many educated Maasai men and women still favour the practice of FGM, not because they are uninformed about the risks involved, but for fear of the social repercussions, should they reject the custom. An unmutilated woman remains a girl in the eyes of the community, however much education she may have, or whatever status she may attain in the outside world. For a woman who refuses to be circumcised, the risk of isolation is great, the chances of finding a Maasai spouse are reduced to almost nil, and her status in society will always be that of a child.
The Maasai FGM ceremony
The FGM ceremony takes place once a year and brings together all girls who come of age during that year. It is a large community event, marked by joyful revelry and feasting. A traditional circumciser, usually an elderly woman with great experience, performs the actual procedure. All the girls are mutilated on the same day and, until recent times, with the same instrument, usually a sharp knife known as an "ormurunya". A paste made from cow dung and milk fat is applied to stop bleeding. The end of the period of seclusion is also marked by celebrations officially welcoming the girls into womanhood.
The Maasai practice type-1 FGM, also known as a clitoridectomy, which involves the removal of the clitoral hood and all or part of the clitoris. Physical effects of the clitoridectomy include:
- reduced sexual desire- bleeding, often severe enough to cause death- infection, particularly due to poor sanitary conditions- risk of HIV transmission due to sharing of knives- complications during childbirth, often leading to stillbirths
Can the Maasai change their behaviour?
Despite their firm hold on their culture, certain aspects of FGM have begun to change. In the era of HIV/AIDS, the Maasai are aware of the risks involved in using the same knife for several procedures and, more often than not, today each individual is mutilated using a different blade. Studies by the non-governmental organisation, Maendeleo Ya Wanawake (MYWO), show that only 14 percent of circumcisers still use the same knife for several girls.
This change may be slight, but observers and campaigners consider that it nevertheless displays an openness among the Maasai to the idea that aspects of their traditional culture can be altered for the better.
One of the main approaches used by agencies trying to address the widespread practice of FGM is the introduction of alternative rites that are still acceptable and relevant to communities and allow girls to have a coming of age ceremony, but exclude mutilating of the girl's genitalia. MYWO and the Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health spearheaded a series of alternative rites ceremonies across Kenya in 1996, and have continued to hold them annually since. In these alternative ceremonies, girls are still educated about their role as women in society, but receive more relevant instruction, such as lessons about reproductive health and the importance of formal education.
The alternative rites approach has had mixed results in Kenya, and among the Maasai has met with only limited success. Well-intentioned as the alternative rituals are, they do not provide the guarantee of low sexual desire that FGM does and, therefore, cannot satisfactorily replace the custom as far as the Maasai are concerned.
Conclusion
FGM is illegal in Kenya, but the law is rarely applied against practitioners or parents who make their children undergo it. The Maasai are a close-knit community who live largely by their own rules, and have resisted modernisation. It is this adherence to their own traditions that makes the eradication of FGM among the Maasai such an uphill task for those seeking to end the practice.
Nevertheless, the outside world is slowly influencing the Maasai way of life, with more girls and boys being enrolled in formal education institutions and learning about the risks associated with FGM. As this happens, it is hoped that the struggle to change harmful traditional practices, such as FGM, will become easier.
The eradication of FGM brings with it the consequence of forever altering the traditions of what is one of the few remaining authentic African societies. The tenacious hold the Maasai have on their culture is unusual, and many feel it should be protected at all costs. The challenge anti-FGM campaigners face is how to change this one harmful aspect of Maasai tradition without tainting the authenticity, or undermining the richness, of their culture.(A question I ask my self up to date)
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and standing up for Women’s Rights.
And the Chairperson of a worldwide campaign against FGM.
Like all six FGM practitioners who carry out hundreds of procedures every year in and around the community, Nashiru sincerely believes in the virtues of FGM.
The women believe that an unmutilated woman has sexual feelings for every man she comes across, and is likely to stray from her marriage. In fact, they see FGM as a tool to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS in their community.
"When you mutilate a girl, you know she will remain pure until she gets married, and that after marriage, she will be faithful," Nashiru explained. "But when you leave a girl unmutilated, she sleeps with any man and brings the disease into the community."
Asked about cleanliness during the procedure, the women said nowadays they used a different disposable razor blade for each girl, instead of the traditional use of one knife to mutilated several girls. In addition, they now used gloves, and had replaced the cowhide base sheet with a plastic one.
Toshi Mahmoud, was mutilated just a month ago, is 11 years old and still has the bright-eyed curiosity and boundless energy of a young girl. She does well in school, is popular with her friends, and seems to have a happy, carefree existence.
Born into the very traditional community of Ol Donyo Nyokie in central Kenya's Kajiado district, Toshi had no qualms about relating her own experience, but winced as she recalled the pain she endured when the practitioner sliced her clitoris off.
"She [the surgeon] slept in the same bed as me the night before. My mother woke me up at six o'clock in the morning and poured a bucket of ice-cold water over me, and then I was taken back into the hut and was mutilated," she said in Kiswahili.
At just 11 years of age, Toshi is below the traditional age of mutilated, but said that often, when the oldest girl came of age, her parents might have all her younger sisters mutilated to save the cost of having several ceremonies.
She said she dreaded the pain, but looked forward to 'becoming a woman' - she wanted to be mutilated because it would make her more acceptable in the eyes of her peers and her community.
"If you are not mutilated, no one wants to talk to you; the girls and boys in school laugh at you because you are still a child," she told IRIN. "No man will want to marry or have sex with you if you are not mutilated."
But Toshi said that despite her own willingness to be mutilated, she did not support the practice of FGM, and insisted that she would not permit her own children to be mutilated.
"We are taught in our school health club that FGM is a harmful practice, and I wish the Maasai would stop forcing girls to do it," she said.
Several mutilated teenage girls in Ol Donyo Nyokie told IRIN they would never put their own children through FGM, having been educated about the dangers of the practice. They were adamant that they would not bow to the community's pressure to have their daughters mutilated, as many of their parents had.
Toshi and her friends, who were all mutilated in the same month, described how their wounds were coated with a paste made from cow dung and milk fat to stop the bleeding and accelerate healing; all maintained they had healed perfectly, and said they had never heard of any deaths or health complications arising from the operation.
However, the head teacher of the Ol Donyo Nyokie Primary School, Rebbeca Pateli, told IRIN there had been several incidents of injury and even death from FGM.
"You hear of girls who die, but there is never an admission that it was FGM-related. The practice is so hidden that it is hard to know how many, but they do get sick, and some die," she said.
Pateli, an ardent anti-FGM campaigner, painfully narrated how she was forced to circumcise her own daughter when the community threatened to ostracise her and her family. "I had hardened, but my girl was under so much pressure from her peers and elderly women that she eventually begged me to take her for the procedure," Pateli recounted.
The young men in the community, known as 'moran', or warriors, strongly believe that FGM is a useful practice that keeps women chaste. "I am married to a woman who is mutilated, and will be mutilating my daughter when the time comes," Kapande ole Saitoti, an Ol Donyo Nyokie moran, told IRIN. "You cannot claim to be a Maasai man or woman if you are not mutilated."
In fact, the girls in the community reported that men were the biggest hindrance to the fight against FGM, because they continued to reject women who were unmutilated.
Change in Ol Donyo Nyokie is slow, but it is happening. More sanitary conditions during the procedure means fewer women suffer hygiene-related complications, and the use of a different blade for each girl has mutilated down the risk of passing on infections, such as HIV.
Samson Ntore, a community-based health worker with the African Medical Research Foundation, said most practitioners in Ol Donyo Nyokie had greatly reduced the severity of the mutilated, and merely made a symbolic incision rather than removing the entire clitoris. However, the women could not make this public knowledge, for fear of the repercussions if they were found to be shirking their duties.
The Ol Donyo Nyokie community is a society fighting to cling to their ways in the face of pressure to change from all sides. Most of them support education, and education tells them to abandon FGM. Today, the prevalence rate of FGM in this community is 100 percent. But the young girls of the community insist that their daughters will never have to undergo the painful procedure.
The Maasai and FGM
The Maasai are a nomadic community who move around several districts in central Kenya and northern Tanzania in search of pasture and water for their animals. Kenyan Maasai number about 377,000. They are a proud people who have steadfastly clung to their traditional values and customs, despite the fact that most other communities around them have been influenced in one way or another by modernisation and western culture.
Their lives revolve predominantly around their cattle, on which they depend for meat, milk and blood - the main components of their diet. As they have no need of the food grown by other communities, they have been less exposed to the influence of other cultures, and have therefore been able to maintain their traditions.
While admirable, the strength of Maasai culture makes it resistant to change, especially traditions as deeply ingrained as the practice of FGM. Like many other cultures, the Maasai have myths about their origins, and the origins of their customs and traditions.
Folklore explains the origin of female genital mutilation in the story of Naipei, a young girl who had intercourse with the enemy of her family, and whose punishment came in the form of mutilation, a decision her family took to prevent her from feeling the urges that had led her to commit the crime.
Since that day, in a bid to protect their honour and the honour of the Maasai society, all Maasai girls who reach adolescence have been mutilated. The aim of FGM is therefore to limit the sexual desire and promiscuity of girls.
The ceremony of FGM marks the coming of age of a girl; she sheds the last vestiges of childhood and joins the league of womankind. It is traditionally performed between the ages of 9 and 14 and is part of the traditional rites of passage for girls, in order for them to be considered adults in their community. A 2005 survey of the Maasai community in Ol Donyo Nyokie (population: 665), found that 100 percent of girls above the age of 15 had undergone FGM.
Following the ceremony there is a period of seclusion, during which girls are educated about their rights and duties as women - they learn how to prepare food, take care of a home and children, and how to look after their future husbands. Once this period is over, a girl is considered an honourable woman and is free to marry.
The importance of this practice among the Maasai is considerable. FGM is perceived as bringing honour to a girl and to her family; by making her eligible for marriage it raises the status of her family in the eyes of society. The Maasai have held to the custom in the face of widespread criticism by Kenyan society and the international community, and despite criminalisation of the practice by the Kenyan government in 2002.
FGM ceremony
Many educated Maasai men and women still favour the practice of FGM, not because they are uninformed about the risks involved, but for fear of the social repercussions, should they reject the custom. An unmutilated woman remains a girl in the eyes of the community, however much education she may have, or whatever status she may attain in the outside world. For a woman who refuses to be circumcised, the risk of isolation is great, the chances of finding a Maasai spouse are reduced to almost nil, and her status in society will always be that of a child.
The Maasai FGM ceremony
The FGM ceremony takes place once a year and brings together all girls who come of age during that year. It is a large community event, marked by joyful revelry and feasting. A traditional circumciser, usually an elderly woman with great experience, performs the actual procedure. All the girls are mutilated on the same day and, until recent times, with the same instrument, usually a sharp knife known as an "ormurunya". A paste made from cow dung and milk fat is applied to stop bleeding. The end of the period of seclusion is also marked by celebrations officially welcoming the girls into womanhood.
The Maasai practice type-1 FGM, also known as a clitoridectomy, which involves the removal of the clitoral hood and all or part of the clitoris. Physical effects of the clitoridectomy include:
- reduced sexual desire- bleeding, often severe enough to cause death- infection, particularly due to poor sanitary conditions- risk of HIV transmission due to sharing of knives- complications during childbirth, often leading to stillbirths
Can the Maasai change their behaviour?
Despite their firm hold on their culture, certain aspects of FGM have begun to change. In the era of HIV/AIDS, the Maasai are aware of the risks involved in using the same knife for several procedures and, more often than not, today each individual is mutilated using a different blade. Studies by the non-governmental organisation, Maendeleo Ya Wanawake (MYWO), show that only 14 percent of circumcisers still use the same knife for several girls.
This change may be slight, but observers and campaigners consider that it nevertheless displays an openness among the Maasai to the idea that aspects of their traditional culture can be altered for the better.
One of the main approaches used by agencies trying to address the widespread practice of FGM is the introduction of alternative rites that are still acceptable and relevant to communities and allow girls to have a coming of age ceremony, but exclude mutilating of the girl's genitalia. MYWO and the Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health spearheaded a series of alternative rites ceremonies across Kenya in 1996, and have continued to hold them annually since. In these alternative ceremonies, girls are still educated about their role as women in society, but receive more relevant instruction, such as lessons about reproductive health and the importance of formal education.
The alternative rites approach has had mixed results in Kenya, and among the Maasai has met with only limited success. Well-intentioned as the alternative rituals are, they do not provide the guarantee of low sexual desire that FGM does and, therefore, cannot satisfactorily replace the custom as far as the Maasai are concerned.
Conclusion
FGM is illegal in Kenya, but the law is rarely applied against practitioners or parents who make their children undergo it. The Maasai are a close-knit community who live largely by their own rules, and have resisted modernisation. It is this adherence to their own traditions that makes the eradication of FGM among the Maasai such an uphill task for those seeking to end the practice.
Nevertheless, the outside world is slowly influencing the Maasai way of life, with more girls and boys being enrolled in formal education institutions and learning about the risks associated with FGM. As this happens, it is hoped that the struggle to change harmful traditional practices, such as FGM, will become easier.
The eradication of FGM brings with it the consequence of forever altering the traditions of what is one of the few remaining authentic African societies. The tenacious hold the Maasai have on their culture is unusual, and many feel it should be protected at all costs. The challenge anti-FGM campaigners face is how to change this one harmful aspect of Maasai tradition without tainting the authenticity, or undermining the richness, of their culture.(A question I ask my self up to date)
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and standing up for Women’s Rights.
And the Chairperson of a worldwide campaign against FGM.
Monday, October 18, 2010
FGM demographic in Kenya you can see 4 of the tribes that practice FGM over 90% and my tribe is among the top.
At the end you will see my good friend and member of parliament Hon Lena Chebee Kilimo ...that we worked tireless with other Women members of Parliment, Hon Alicen Chelaite,Hon Beth Mugo ,Hon Cecily Mbarire, and Hon Njoki Ndungu....and the 4000 women from all over the republic Kenya representing all 42 communities and seven provinces that we convened at KENYATTA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTRE (KICC) to put an End to VAW against women and misuse of women funds by some large organisation and male politicians!!!!! O.M.G I will never forget the tear gas and police brutality as we marched peacefully and singing women freedom songs (Wamama misilale lalelale wamama msilala bado mapambano...bado mapambano bado mapambano x4) translation "Women do not sleep please don't sleep the figh is still on ...the fight is still on x4"...few days later we were in court ..14 strong women and guess who was the leader the youngest and the most vocal ? hahahaha lol....... ooh the long nights ,threats, and sleepless fearful nights:(.
Ambassador Lucy Mashua
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and standing up for Women’s Rights.
Ambassador Lucy Mashua
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and standing up for Women’s Rights.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Women raped by Security forces 7 men at a time in Kenya 26 years ago during Moi regime. still no justice One victim was 8 months pregnant and she lost her baby:(
Women had no where to run to and hide ...this beasts gang raped each woman...mothers and daughters as they kill their sons and husbands....in this video with English subtitles they pour their heart out and it is very sad and heartbreaking.
Kenyan government I know this happened during the past regime...but the security forces are still at work and still rapes women during tribal clashes to date:((. kindly do justice to this women and all the security persons involved to be brought to justice! here is the video grab some kleenex 26 years ago as remembered by the women who experienced it... their voices finally revealed.
By Lucy Mashua
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and standing up for Women’s Rights.
Kenyan government I know this happened during the past regime...but the security forces are still at work and still rapes women during tribal clashes to date:((. kindly do justice to this women and all the security persons involved to be brought to justice! here is the video grab some kleenex 26 years ago as remembered by the women who experienced it... their voices finally revealed.
By Lucy Mashua
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and standing up for Women’s Rights.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
My Maasai sister Neema of Daughters of Africa singing this heartfelt song at the Hague which reflects the pain and struggles of African daughters....
My Maasai sister Neema of Daughters of Africa singing this heartfelt song at the Hague which reflects the pain and struggles of African daughters....this choir was put together by Leoni Jansen from Netherland when she went to Nairobi Kenya the choir is composed of African daughters from East Africa,South Africa and East central Africa. enjoy this familiar but deep rooted true struggle expressed...Am proud of my little sis and all the the Daughters of Africa.
Death sentence to Judith Koriang a HIV mother after killing an abusive husband.
Kampala — As the court martial handed the death sentence to Judith Koriang on Wednesday afternoon, the mother stood still with teary eyes.
She bowed down as her eyes swept across the courtroom, from chairman Lt. Col. Eugene Sebugwawo to the other members of the 3rd Division army court. Koriang, a 20-year-old widow with a young son, heard her fate sealed by the court martial sitting in Moroto. She was advised by the court to appeal against the death sentence within 14 days.
Koriang shot dead her husband, Pte. Nelson Okello, on May 1, 2009, at Nakiloro army detachment in Moroto district, a few kilometres to the Uganda-Kenya border, following a domestic fracas.
The discordant couple was residing in a makeshift hut, popularly known as mama ingia pole. After Koriang tested HIV-positive and her husband negative, it triggered endless insults from the husband. Koriang told the court that Okello was the only man she had known in life; and his persistent demand that she goes to the man who infected her, sent her mad.
On the fateful day, the husband went back home but refused to eat supper and asked her to leave. She narrated that she played it cool until midnight when she woke up to execute her mission.
She picked her husband's gun stealthily and tiptoed out. She then sprayed bullets on the makeshift structure, knowing that by the time the gun went silent, her son and husband would be dead.
Miraculously, the son survived but the husband was hit by a few bullets out of the 30 she sprayed and died instantly. "After all the mistreatment, the only answer was to kill my son and husband and then turn the gun on myself. Unfortunately, the gun ran shot of bullets," Koriang told court.
She said after the shooting, she entered the hut and carried out the baby and started walking to Moroto Central Police Station, over 30km away, to hand herself in. However, she got tired on the way and decided to rest at Rupa sub-county headquarters after walking for 20km in the night.
Koriang has been on remand in Moroto prison for 14 months. Pte. Francis Masereka said after the shooting, a search was mounted along the main road to Moroto and Koriang was found seated with her one-year-old baby and taken back to the detachment.
Pte. Ariama Okello, the immediate neighbour, said the quarrels started after a UPDF team of doctors tested soldiers for HIV and found that Koriang was positive yet the husband was negative.
After reading the judgement, the court chairman said a number of soldiers' wives had killed their husbands. "To cut the rising trend, Judith Koriang, I am sentencing you to suffer death as a deterrent to others planning the same act," Ssebugwawo said.
After the ruling, Lt. Dan Madaba, her defence lawyer, allowed her to talk to her relatives briefly before she boarded a military truck to prison. The 3rd Division army spokesperson, Capt. Deo Akiiki, yesterday explained that Koriang, a civilian, was tried in the military court because the UPDF Act allows anybody in the company of the armed forces, who uses firearms to commit a crime, to be tried by the court.
Koriang is the second woman to be sentenced to death by the court martial. The first was Grace Ichakuna from Bukedea, who participated in killing her husband in 2008.
There are about 500 inmates in Luzira and Kirinya prisons on death row. Some were sentenced by the army court and others by the civil courts.
can we save this woman's life? what would you do? millions of this soldiers get away with masses of rape and murder but one woman who is a victim herself is sentenced to death after being in a police cell for 14 months without trial!!!!!!! in Africa do we women exist?
Fighting FGM by all means!
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
She bowed down as her eyes swept across the courtroom, from chairman Lt. Col. Eugene Sebugwawo to the other members of the 3rd Division army court. Koriang, a 20-year-old widow with a young son, heard her fate sealed by the court martial sitting in Moroto. She was advised by the court to appeal against the death sentence within 14 days.
Koriang shot dead her husband, Pte. Nelson Okello, on May 1, 2009, at Nakiloro army detachment in Moroto district, a few kilometres to the Uganda-Kenya border, following a domestic fracas.
The discordant couple was residing in a makeshift hut, popularly known as mama ingia pole. After Koriang tested HIV-positive and her husband negative, it triggered endless insults from the husband. Koriang told the court that Okello was the only man she had known in life; and his persistent demand that she goes to the man who infected her, sent her mad.
On the fateful day, the husband went back home but refused to eat supper and asked her to leave. She narrated that she played it cool until midnight when she woke up to execute her mission.
She picked her husband's gun stealthily and tiptoed out. She then sprayed bullets on the makeshift structure, knowing that by the time the gun went silent, her son and husband would be dead.
Miraculously, the son survived but the husband was hit by a few bullets out of the 30 she sprayed and died instantly. "After all the mistreatment, the only answer was to kill my son and husband and then turn the gun on myself. Unfortunately, the gun ran shot of bullets," Koriang told court.
She said after the shooting, she entered the hut and carried out the baby and started walking to Moroto Central Police Station, over 30km away, to hand herself in. However, she got tired on the way and decided to rest at Rupa sub-county headquarters after walking for 20km in the night.
Koriang has been on remand in Moroto prison for 14 months. Pte. Francis Masereka said after the shooting, a search was mounted along the main road to Moroto and Koriang was found seated with her one-year-old baby and taken back to the detachment.
Pte. Ariama Okello, the immediate neighbour, said the quarrels started after a UPDF team of doctors tested soldiers for HIV and found that Koriang was positive yet the husband was negative.
After reading the judgement, the court chairman said a number of soldiers' wives had killed their husbands. "To cut the rising trend, Judith Koriang, I am sentencing you to suffer death as a deterrent to others planning the same act," Ssebugwawo said.
After the ruling, Lt. Dan Madaba, her defence lawyer, allowed her to talk to her relatives briefly before she boarded a military truck to prison. The 3rd Division army spokesperson, Capt. Deo Akiiki, yesterday explained that Koriang, a civilian, was tried in the military court because the UPDF Act allows anybody in the company of the armed forces, who uses firearms to commit a crime, to be tried by the court.
Koriang is the second woman to be sentenced to death by the court martial. The first was Grace Ichakuna from Bukedea, who participated in killing her husband in 2008.
There are about 500 inmates in Luzira and Kirinya prisons on death row. Some were sentenced by the army court and others by the civil courts.
can we save this woman's life? what would you do? millions of this soldiers get away with masses of rape and murder but one woman who is a victim herself is sentenced to death after being in a police cell for 14 months without trial!!!!!!! in Africa do we women exist?
Fighting FGM by all means!
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Fgm death tolls on the rise in Same district Tanzania.by Mashua Against Fgm East Africa
Translation by Lucy Mashua
Tanzania is one of the countries with many ethnic groups, where each tribe have its traditions.
So far there are tribes in the country that still can not change his religion despite the fact that the world has changed and is now on globalization and science and technology system.
In ethnic regions of Shinyanga, Mwanza and Tabora is taboo for a woman to stay the same table with a man they have to eat together, be it night or day and these are traditions that can not be changed by globalization.
There are numerous examples showing clearly that systematic changes have no place in the traditions and customs of ethnic groups in the country and even other African countries.
But there are traditions that in one way or the other is repressive, not incompatible with the teachings of Allah /God and in general are a cruel and sexual abuse is not omithirika.
These rituals are those associated with mutilating baby girl by removing vital organs in their genitals.
Riding the brutal actions of mothers who are part of the parents and are known for the famous name of mutilated, who is paid a great wage and parents of children who are mutilated
Despite the persecution they suffered these children when they underwent the same violence that leads to deaths, the parents seemed thrilled to watch them celebrate by playing drums.
Despite these children mutilated, they are married at a tender age to older men who are twice as old as their fathers.
In some tribes, a girl you prepare all kinds of abuse, including isolation and called 'baby' even if his age is great, just because they are not mutilated and called names a lot of ridicule and large can not marry until they are mutilated.
Tests conducted by the Tanzania Always in the district of Same in Kilimanjaro and Babati in Manyara for the support of institutions of the Gender and Media Southern Africa (GEMSAT), a branch of Tanzania, has revealed that acts of mutilation for girls is rising pace despite the existence efforts by non-governmental organizations (NGO's) fight against such acts.
In the Same District, in partnership with parents mutilators transport have developed techniques to children and Handeni Mheza districts, Tanga Region where they are mutilated before they return home.
In villages Hedaru, Masandare, Kisamri, Billions, Emuguli and razor district Same, Kilimanjaro, girls who reach school age and those schools have been mutilated.Rose Mnyone is activist against violence against girls in the district of Same from non-profit organization The civil war of mutilation of NAFGEM lupiga, says in Same District is a chronic problem of mutilating girls, which so far can not be eradicated due to the absence of genuine pressure from the government.
she says FGM is harmful to girls, including the many lives lost due to bleeding a lot.
Iyeka dance is very popular dance in the Pare tribe, which takes place during the mutilation should make a woman's first birth to his offspring.
To answer the Mnyone, who is a retired community development officer, says that culture is a permanent mutilated woman who delivered but Pare culture has led to the breakdown of many marriages.
It is stated that many men are forced to abandon their wives by their partner and they were physical changes during sex, which occurs more than once after delivery.
The mutilating culture is quickly spreading to other areas like Bendera, Kihurio, Makokane, Karemawe, Kamadufa, Islander and elsewhere in the lower zone.
In trying to eradicate the practice, there is a strategy set by the activists including involving health centers, dispensaries and hosiptali make observations of infants who were sent there for treatment to see if they are mutilated.
The goal of this strategy is to ensure riding acts are arrested and brought to the state forces, though it is stated that the campaign is difficult due to some executives of media dollars and involved acts of corruption from the suspects.
Same District General, Ibrahim Marwa, he joins the activists to fight practice and ordering a campaign to hunt and encourage parents mutilators courteous riding practices to be sustainable.
"The child is entitled to his basic needs and protection, Tanzania has been in collaboration with various institutions to fight violence like this," he said.
the mutilation culture these woman have brought much harm to the children who underwent acts.
you all can remember our article on Debora Daniel (4) of the Village of Imbilili Babati District, Manyara Region is one of the children who were mutilated and died from bleeding a lot.
Studies have revealed that the child had been suffering from frequent colds was mutilated by the command of her parent, believing the right way to heal they sought mutilation but she bled to death for 8 days:(
The child was mutilated on October 11 last year and died October 18, after many days bleeding genitals and there was no effort to save her life until death .
Confidence of the executive officer of the village reported the child's father arrested him, who was arranging a quick burial after our public out cry and asked the police to give us the cause of death and arresting Deborah's father last year through our petition and grass root mobilization (Mashua against fgm foot soldiers)the body was taken and subjected to investigation and identified that the child had been mutilated.
Regional Police Commander Manyara, Parmenas Sumary, he acknowledged that there is much work to educate the community about the cruel practice of female children mutilation, where many are dying by bleeding a lot.
Sumary says the problem is happening events go un reported to police stations, as some parents use deception to claim their children have died of convulsions disease.
Fighting FGM by all means!
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
Tanzania is one of the countries with many ethnic groups, where each tribe have its traditions.
So far there are tribes in the country that still can not change his religion despite the fact that the world has changed and is now on globalization and science and technology system.
In ethnic regions of Shinyanga, Mwanza and Tabora is taboo for a woman to stay the same table with a man they have to eat together, be it night or day and these are traditions that can not be changed by globalization.
There are numerous examples showing clearly that systematic changes have no place in the traditions and customs of ethnic groups in the country and even other African countries.
But there are traditions that in one way or the other is repressive, not incompatible with the teachings of Allah /God and in general are a cruel and sexual abuse is not omithirika.
These rituals are those associated with mutilating baby girl by removing vital organs in their genitals.
Riding the brutal actions of mothers who are part of the parents and are known for the famous name of mutilated, who is paid a great wage and parents of children who are mutilated
Despite the persecution they suffered these children when they underwent the same violence that leads to deaths, the parents seemed thrilled to watch them celebrate by playing drums.
Despite these children mutilated, they are married at a tender age to older men who are twice as old as their fathers.
In some tribes, a girl you prepare all kinds of abuse, including isolation and called 'baby' even if his age is great, just because they are not mutilated and called names a lot of ridicule and large can not marry until they are mutilated.
Tests conducted by the Tanzania Always in the district of Same in Kilimanjaro and Babati in Manyara for the support of institutions of the Gender and Media Southern Africa (GEMSAT), a branch of Tanzania, has revealed that acts of mutilation for girls is rising pace despite the existence efforts by non-governmental organizations (NGO's) fight against such acts.
In the Same District, in partnership with parents mutilators transport have developed techniques to children and Handeni Mheza districts, Tanga Region where they are mutilated before they return home.
In villages Hedaru, Masandare, Kisamri, Billions, Emuguli and razor district Same, Kilimanjaro, girls who reach school age and those schools have been mutilated.Rose Mnyone is activist against violence against girls in the district of Same from non-profit organization The civil war of mutilation of NAFGEM lupiga, says in Same District is a chronic problem of mutilating girls, which so far can not be eradicated due to the absence of genuine pressure from the government.
she says FGM is harmful to girls, including the many lives lost due to bleeding a lot.
Iyeka dance is very popular dance in the Pare tribe, which takes place during the mutilation should make a woman's first birth to his offspring.
To answer the Mnyone, who is a retired community development officer, says that culture is a permanent mutilated woman who delivered but Pare culture has led to the breakdown of many marriages.
It is stated that many men are forced to abandon their wives by their partner and they were physical changes during sex, which occurs more than once after delivery.
The mutilating culture is quickly spreading to other areas like Bendera, Kihurio, Makokane, Karemawe, Kamadufa, Islander and elsewhere in the lower zone.
In trying to eradicate the practice, there is a strategy set by the activists including involving health centers, dispensaries and hosiptali make observations of infants who were sent there for treatment to see if they are mutilated.
The goal of this strategy is to ensure riding acts are arrested and brought to the state forces, though it is stated that the campaign is difficult due to some executives of media dollars and involved acts of corruption from the suspects.
Same District General, Ibrahim Marwa, he joins the activists to fight practice and ordering a campaign to hunt and encourage parents mutilators courteous riding practices to be sustainable.
"The child is entitled to his basic needs and protection, Tanzania has been in collaboration with various institutions to fight violence like this," he said.
the mutilation culture these woman have brought much harm to the children who underwent acts.
you all can remember our article on Debora Daniel (4) of the Village of Imbilili Babati District, Manyara Region is one of the children who were mutilated and died from bleeding a lot.
Studies have revealed that the child had been suffering from frequent colds was mutilated by the command of her parent, believing the right way to heal they sought mutilation but she bled to death for 8 days:(
The child was mutilated on October 11 last year and died October 18, after many days bleeding genitals and there was no effort to save her life until death .
Confidence of the executive officer of the village reported the child's father arrested him, who was arranging a quick burial after our public out cry and asked the police to give us the cause of death and arresting Deborah's father last year through our petition and grass root mobilization (Mashua against fgm foot soldiers)the body was taken and subjected to investigation and identified that the child had been mutilated.
Regional Police Commander Manyara, Parmenas Sumary, he acknowledged that there is much work to educate the community about the cruel practice of female children mutilation, where many are dying by bleeding a lot.
Sumary says the problem is happening events go un reported to police stations, as some parents use deception to claim their children have died of convulsions disease.
Fighting FGM by all means!
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
Mila Ya Ukeketaji...FGM in Swahili for http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mashua-dhidi-ya-Ukeketaji-jumuiya-ya-Afrika-ya-Mashariki/113483418711942?ref=mf
Je umewahi kuchanwa au kakatwa na wembe? natumai uchungu unaufahamu..lakini mjini Pokot wasichana wanataabika,haswa wale wanaoolewa kwani baada ya kukeketwa wakiwa wasichana wadogo, sasa kizaazaa ni kufunguliwa njia na la kushangaza ni kwamba wanawake hulazimika kutumia pembe ya ng'ombe.Naam bila kukupotezea wakati tupate taarifa hii kutoka Pokot iliyoandaliwa na Lulu Hassan,ambaye anasema kwamba wenyewe wamechoshwa na zoezi hili na kuamua sasa kulitupa katika kaburi la sahau.This woman demonstrates how after Fgm they reopen the vagina using a bulls horn:( where the man waits outside then comes in to have sex with the agonizing bleeding woman....in pokot district my province rift valley. join our East Africa page for more info.
Madhara au athari hizi zinakuwa jinamizi linalomfuata mwanamke maisha yake yote.
Balozi Lucy Mashua ,
Balozi wa kukabiliana na ukeketaji duniani.
Msaidizi wa wakimbizi hapa Marekani
Mwenye kiti wa kamati inoyopinga ukeketaji duniani.
Madhara au athari hizi zinakuwa jinamizi linalomfuata mwanamke maisha yake yote.
Balozi Lucy Mashua ,
Balozi wa kukabiliana na ukeketaji duniani.
Msaidizi wa wakimbizi hapa Marekani
Mwenye kiti wa kamati inoyopinga ukeketaji duniani.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
FGM gone wrong September 11/2010 a 12 year old in Kenya fights for her life:( one year with no URINATION! Research by Siasa bora /KTN and Lucy Mashua
VERY URGENT!!!!
This is very sad just yesterday September 11th 2010 this beautiful innocent young girl in Kenya North Eastern Province Garissa district hospital fights for her life...yesterday one of my many secret FGM soldiers alerted me and at first I got sick:(....Am very sad very sad can you imagine living with a rotten vagina and with a deadly urine infection for A year? ONE YEAR WITHOUT URINATION AND BOTH KIDNEYS FAILED! We need a A quick petition and a Small quick fund for Khadija...please let us save our baby girl Khadija .
This has to STOP NOW!!!!!!!! How many will die and suffer?
A 12-year-old Somali girl is fighting for her life at the Garissa provincial general hospital after developing complications from a genital mutilation performed a year ago. The girl has had problems passing urine for the past year and is now in dire need of urgent medical help. Her plight has led her uncle to call on women in his community to end the initiation practice.
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and standing up for Women’s Rights.
And the Chairperson of a worldwide campaign against FGM.
http://twitter.com/Mashua
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mashua-Against-FGM/225406701415
This is very sad just yesterday September 11th 2010 this beautiful innocent young girl in Kenya North Eastern Province Garissa district hospital fights for her life...yesterday one of my many secret FGM soldiers alerted me and at first I got sick:(....Am very sad very sad can you imagine living with a rotten vagina and with a deadly urine infection for A year? ONE YEAR WITHOUT URINATION AND BOTH KIDNEYS FAILED! We need a A quick petition and a Small quick fund for Khadija...please let us save our baby girl Khadija .
This has to STOP NOW!!!!!!!! How many will die and suffer?
A 12-year-old Somali girl is fighting for her life at the Garissa provincial general hospital after developing complications from a genital mutilation performed a year ago. The girl has had problems passing urine for the past year and is now in dire need of urgent medical help. Her plight has led her uncle to call on women in his community to end the initiation practice.
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and standing up for Women’s Rights.
And the Chairperson of a worldwide campaign against FGM.
http://twitter.com/Mashua
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mashua-Against-FGM/225406701415
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Genital mutilation on the rise as UK combats the crime ..so sad that no one has been convicted!
Medical officials in the UK say the number of women who've been subjected to genital mutilation is on the rise. Although the practice is illegal in the country, thousands are considered to be at risk annually -- and no one has ever been convicted of the crime.
MY MESSAGE TO SURVIVORS IT IS OK TO SAY THAT WE WERE MUTILATED...WE WERE HELD DOWN AGAINST OUR WILLS, WE DIDN'T WANT THE ATROCITY TO HAPPEN TO US, WE WERE VIOLATED AND THE ONLY CLOSET DEFINITION OF THIS HORROR IS MUTILATION!!!!! ALL SURVIVORS SPEAK UP NOW IT IS TIME TO TELL WE HAVE A VOICE NOW LETS SAVE THE VOICELESS!!!!!
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and standing up for Women’s Rights.
And the Chairperson of a worldwide campaign against FGM.
http://twitter.com/Mashua
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mashua-Against-FGM/225406701415
MY MESSAGE TO SURVIVORS IT IS OK TO SAY THAT WE WERE MUTILATED...WE WERE HELD DOWN AGAINST OUR WILLS, WE DIDN'T WANT THE ATROCITY TO HAPPEN TO US, WE WERE VIOLATED AND THE ONLY CLOSET DEFINITION OF THIS HORROR IS MUTILATION!!!!! ALL SURVIVORS SPEAK UP NOW IT IS TIME TO TELL WE HAVE A VOICE NOW LETS SAVE THE VOICELESS!!!!!
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and standing up for Women’s Rights.
And the Chairperson of a worldwide campaign against FGM.
http://twitter.com/Mashua
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mashua-Against-FGM/225406701415
Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Hirsi Ali is now an atheist, BUT she believes Christianity can combat the rise of conservative Islam. she was talking Against FGM .
AYAAN Hirsi Ali is shivering in the teal, wool coat that envelopes her on this wet winter day in Sydney.
She looks bird-like. But behind the fragile-looking exterior is a steely mind that has earned her the distinction of being one of the world's most controversial writers, feminists and activists.
Somali-born Muslim Hirsi Ali was a refugee turned Dutch MP when she helped make Submission, the anti-Islamic short film that led to the assassination of its maker, Theo Van Gogh, in 2004.
Ali received death threats, exacerbated by her public rejection of Islam. Since then she has had bodyguards 24/7. Even in Sydney, plain-clothes police shadow her every move.
Hirsi Ali was eight when her family left Somalia. She was granted asylum in The Netherlands in 1992, after she ran away from an impending arranged marriage. She now lives in the US.
Hirsi Ali emphatically rejects calls in Australia to allow a limited form of female circumcision. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has discussed backing "ritual nicks", a modified form of genital mutilation.
University of Newcastle's professor of perinatal and infant psychiatry Dr Louise Newman said some doctors had been approached to perform the procedure.
Hirsi Ali, herself a victim of genital mutilation, says girls who underwent a ritual nick in hospital would probably be subjected to the more radical form anyway.
"Most parents who believe in female circumcision believe in the full form," she says. "I can understand where the Australian doctors are coming from, but it's wrong."
Hirsi Ali favours a strict detection system, where girls at risk are medically examined every 12 months to make sure they haven't been mutilated. She advocates severe penalties for parents who try to force their daughters into mutilation.
"An annual check that takes two minutes is far less traumatic than the alternative," she says. "Educating parents against the practice is also key."
Hirsi Ali has written several memoirs: Infidel, The Caged Virgin and the most recent, Nomad, in which she recounts her life after breaking with her family, her religion and how she struggled to be educated and assimilate into Western society.
"I had to learn to question, to fight for my rights and not to submit to everything bad that could happen to me," she says.
Hirsi Ali urges the West to help Muslim immigrants integrate and overcome the temptation of fundamental Islam.
It's not parents putting children and vulnerable young people in ghettos, but fundamentalists who want them isolated from society.
"Fundamentalists do not want integration," she says." They teach young people that democracy, free thinking, is bad."
Hirsi Ali is now an atheist, and counts British atheist campaigner Richard Dawkins as a close friend.
But she believes Christianity can combat the rise of conservative Islam.
"Churches should do all in their power to win this battle for the souls of humans in search of a compassionate God, who now find that a fierce Allah is closer to hand," she writes in Nomad.
Thank you Margaret Colomb (Ma wa oz) in Sidney for the research..
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and standing up for Women’s Rights.
And the Chairperson of a worldwide campaign against FGM.
http://twitter.com/Mashua
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mashua-Against-FGM/225406701415
British girls undergo horror of genital mutilation despite tough laws:(.
This summer, at least 500 British girls will be subjected to the barbaric practice of genital mutilation. For some it will happen abroad;( others will be Mutilated in the UK. Survivors talk about the traumatic effect the practice has on their lives.
WARNING: CONTAINS DISTRESSING AND DISTURBING IMAGES
Like any 12-year-old, Jamelia was excited at the prospect of a plane journey and a long summer holiday in the sun. An avid reader, she had filled her suitcases with books and was reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when her mother came for her. "She said, 'You know it's going to be today?' I didn't know exactly what it would entail but I knew something was going to be cut. I was made to believe it was genuinely part of our religion."
She went on: "I came to the living room and there were loads of women. I later found out it was to hold me down, they bring lots of women to hold the girl down. I thought I was going to be brave so I didn't really need that. I just lay down and I remember looking at the ceiling and staring at the fan.
"I don't remember screaming, I remember the ridiculous amount of pain, I remember the blood everywhere, one of the maids, I actually saw her pick up the bit of flesh that they cut away 'cause she was mopping up the blood. There was blood everywhere."
Some 500 to 2,000 British schoolgirls will be genitally mutilated over the summer holidays. Some will be taken abroad, others will be "cut" or circumcised and sewn closed here in the UK by women already living here or who are flown in and brought to "cutting parties" for a few girls at a time in a cost-saving exercise.
Then the girls will return to their schools and try to get on with their lives, scarred mentally and physically by female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice that serves as a social and cultural bonding exercise and, among those who are stitched up, to ensure that chastity can be proved to a future husband.
Even girls who suffer less extreme forms of FGM are unlikely to be promiscuous. One study among Egyptian women found 50% of women who had undergone FGM "endured" rather than enjoyed sex.
Cleanliness, neatness of appearance and the increased sexual pleasure for the man are all motivations for the practice. But the desire to conform to tradition is the most powerful motive. The rite of passage, condemned by many Islamic scholars, predates both the Koran and the Bible and possibly even Judaism, appearing in the 2nd century BC.
Although unable to give consent, many girls are compliant when they have the prodecure carried out, believing they will be outcasts if they are not cut. The mothers believe they are doing the best for their daughters. Few have any idea of the lifetime of hurt it can involve or the medical implications.
Jamelia, now 20, who says her whole personality changed afterwards."I felt a lot older. It was odd because nobody says this is a secret, keep your mouth shut but that's the message you get loud and clear." She stopped the sports and swimming she used to love and became "strangely disconnected with her own body". Other girls have died, of shock or blood loss; some have picked up infections from dirty tools. Jamelia's mother paid extra for the woman to use a clean razor. It is thought that in the UK there are one or two doctors who can be bribed by the very rich to to carry out FGM using anaesthetic and sterilised instruments.
Comfort Momoh works at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London, in one of the 16 clinics up and down the country who deal with FGM and its health repercusssions. Women who have had much of their external genitalia sliced off and their vaginas stitched closed, but for a tiny hole, also come to be cut open in order to give birth.
There are four types of female circumcision identified by the World Health Organisation, ranging from partial to total removal of the external female genitalia. Some 140 million women worldwide have been subjected to FGM and an estimated further two million are at risk every year. Most live in 28 African countries while others are in Yemen, Kurdistan, the US, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Canada.
The UK Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985 makes it an offence to carry out FGM or to aid, abet or procure the service of another person. The Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003, makes it against the law for FGM to be performed anywhere in the world on UK permanent residents of any age and carries a maximum sentence of 14 years imprisonment. To date, no prosecutions have been made under UK legislation.
"Obviously in summer we get really anxious. All activists and professionals working around FGM get anxious because this is the time that families take their children back home. This is the time when all the professionals need to be really alert," said Momoh.
"There is no hard evidence in figures about what is happening in the UK because it's a hush-hush thing. It's only now that a few people are beginning to talk about it, which is good because change will only come from within and the numbers coming forward are rising. But there is a lot of family pressure. When I first started in 1997 we had two clinics in the country, now we have 16."
One woman told the Observer how a midwife examining her had raced retching and crying from the room. She had no idea she was "abnormal" before that happened. There is a clear need for women who have suffered FGM to be able to visit health professionals who understand what has happened to them. Momoh said that for those who wanted it, some surgical reversal work could sometimes be done on women with the most severe FGM procedure, Type III. For those with other types, counselling and support is all that can offered.
"Periods are agony – you get a lot of women who are determined to have reversals while they are having their period but then when the pain has stopped they lose their nerve again," said Leyla Hussein, 29, who has had to have years of counselling to cope with her own anger and distress at what was done to her as a child. It has helped her forgive her own mother's complicity in the mutilation she endured, though the older woman could not understand why Hussein would not have her own child, now aged seven, cut. But Hussein has vowed that she will be the last generation of women in her family to suffer.
"It was my husband who said on our honeymoon, 'We are not going to do this thing to any child of ours.' I was quite shocked, I hadn't questioned it. But I now realise a lot of men are not in favour of FGM, not when you tell them the woman is not going to enjoy herself."
Hussein is among a slowly but steadily growing band of women who have reacted against what happened to them with courage and a determination to stamp out FGM. Hussein has run support and discussion groups for affected women and for men, and formerly worked at the African Well Women's Centre in Leyton, east London.
"I can really relate to some of the women who are very angry, but how do you blame your mother, who loves you yet planned this for you? There is a lot of anger and resentment. Many women blame themselves and of course there are flashbacks to deal with. I had blackouts – anytime I had to have a smear test, I would pass out because lying in that position brought it back to me, but the nurse is used to me now and allows a little more time with the appointment." (EVERY SURVIVOR OF FGM GO THROUGH THIS WITH EVERY GYNO APPOINTMENT IT IS HELL ON EARTH! BY MASHUA) For Jason Morgan, a detective constable in the Met's FGM unit, Project Azure, the solution lies with those girls themselves: "Empowering youth, giving them the information, is the way forward. They are coming from predominantly caring and loving families, who genuinely believe this is the right thing to do. Many are under a great deal of pressure from the extended families.
"Sometimes it might be as simple as delivering the message of what the legal position is; sometimes we even give them an official letter, a document that they can show to the extended family that states quite firmly what will happen if the procedure goes ahead. The focus has to be on prevention."
Project Azure made 38 interventions in 2008, 59 in 2009 and 25 so far this year. For Morgan those statistics are just as important as getting a conviction. "We know it happens here although we have no official statistics, but we have seen very successful partnerships and we don't want to alienate communities through heavy-handed tactics.
"While a prosecution would send out a very clear message to practising communities, really it is very difficult and you would be relying on medical evidence, and in turn that would all hinge or whether the child consents to an examination."
But Naana Otoo-Oyortey is not so content with the softly-softly approach:( WHICH I STAND WITH HER AND 100% AGREE PEOPLE STOP BEING SOFT OR BLOODY CULTURE SENSITIVE WITH THIS ATROCITY LISTEN TO US WE HAVE SUFFERED AND WE WILL NOT LET OUR CHILDREN SUFFER SO DO YOUR JOB! BY MASHUA AGAINST FGM) "We have anecdotal evidence that it is being done here. So someone is not doing their job: it's an indication that the government has been failing to protect children. The commitment is hollow."
Head of the leading anti-FGM charity Forward UK, Otoo-Oyortey said people value the FGM tradition as something which holds a community together and gives it structure. "It's seen as a party, a FGM party because it's a celebration – people expect it as a way of welcoming a girl. A lot of women will mention to us that there have been no prosecutions here so why do we worry about the law? At the end of the day who will know?
"And we cannot just blame the women as the men are silently supporting it by paying for it. The new government's lack of a position on FGM is very worrying. We don't know what they will do, but we do know that the summer holidays are here again and we will be left to pick up the pieces in a few weeks' time."
And for those who will undergo "FGM" this summer, the effects will be lifelong. Miriam was six when she had her cutting party at her home in Somalia, two years before war arrived to force her family out.
When she was 12, doctors were horrified to find that what they thought was a cyst in her body was actually several years of period blood that had been blocked from leaving her body. Unable to have children, she now lives and works in England and worries about other girls. "I'd seen so many people undergo FGM, all my neighbours, so I knew one day it was going to happen to me. We knew what was happening," Miriam said.
"The little girls who were born in Europe have no clue. They will be traumatised a lot more. The only thing they know is that they are going away – that's what they say, 'We're going on a holiday'.
"Then her life and her head are going to be messed up. It's amazing how many people are in mental health care because of their culture. Don't get me wrong, I have religion and culture and I love where I'm from and I love what I stand for. But culture should not be about torture.
"Why would anyone want to go and cut up a seven- or eight-year-old child? People need to wake up — you are hurting your child, you are hurting your daughter, you're not going to have a grandchild, so wake up."
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and standing up for Women’s Rights.
And the Chairperson of a worldwide campaign against FGM.
http://twitter.com/Mashua
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mashua-Against-FGM/225406701415
WARNING: CONTAINS DISTRESSING AND DISTURBING IMAGES
Like any 12-year-old, Jamelia was excited at the prospect of a plane journey and a long summer holiday in the sun. An avid reader, she had filled her suitcases with books and was reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when her mother came for her. "She said, 'You know it's going to be today?' I didn't know exactly what it would entail but I knew something was going to be cut. I was made to believe it was genuinely part of our religion."
She went on: "I came to the living room and there were loads of women. I later found out it was to hold me down, they bring lots of women to hold the girl down. I thought I was going to be brave so I didn't really need that. I just lay down and I remember looking at the ceiling and staring at the fan.
"I don't remember screaming, I remember the ridiculous amount of pain, I remember the blood everywhere, one of the maids, I actually saw her pick up the bit of flesh that they cut away 'cause she was mopping up the blood. There was blood everywhere."
Some 500 to 2,000 British schoolgirls will be genitally mutilated over the summer holidays. Some will be taken abroad, others will be "cut" or circumcised and sewn closed here in the UK by women already living here or who are flown in and brought to "cutting parties" for a few girls at a time in a cost-saving exercise.
Then the girls will return to their schools and try to get on with their lives, scarred mentally and physically by female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice that serves as a social and cultural bonding exercise and, among those who are stitched up, to ensure that chastity can be proved to a future husband.
Even girls who suffer less extreme forms of FGM are unlikely to be promiscuous. One study among Egyptian women found 50% of women who had undergone FGM "endured" rather than enjoyed sex.
Cleanliness, neatness of appearance and the increased sexual pleasure for the man are all motivations for the practice. But the desire to conform to tradition is the most powerful motive. The rite of passage, condemned by many Islamic scholars, predates both the Koran and the Bible and possibly even Judaism, appearing in the 2nd century BC.
Although unable to give consent, many girls are compliant when they have the prodecure carried out, believing they will be outcasts if they are not cut. The mothers believe they are doing the best for their daughters. Few have any idea of the lifetime of hurt it can involve or the medical implications.
Jamelia, now 20, who says her whole personality changed afterwards."I felt a lot older. It was odd because nobody says this is a secret, keep your mouth shut but that's the message you get loud and clear." She stopped the sports and swimming she used to love and became "strangely disconnected with her own body". Other girls have died, of shock or blood loss; some have picked up infections from dirty tools. Jamelia's mother paid extra for the woman to use a clean razor. It is thought that in the UK there are one or two doctors who can be bribed by the very rich to to carry out FGM using anaesthetic and sterilised instruments.
Comfort Momoh works at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London, in one of the 16 clinics up and down the country who deal with FGM and its health repercusssions. Women who have had much of their external genitalia sliced off and their vaginas stitched closed, but for a tiny hole, also come to be cut open in order to give birth.
There are four types of female circumcision identified by the World Health Organisation, ranging from partial to total removal of the external female genitalia. Some 140 million women worldwide have been subjected to FGM and an estimated further two million are at risk every year. Most live in 28 African countries while others are in Yemen, Kurdistan, the US, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Canada.
The UK Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985 makes it an offence to carry out FGM or to aid, abet or procure the service of another person. The Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003, makes it against the law for FGM to be performed anywhere in the world on UK permanent residents of any age and carries a maximum sentence of 14 years imprisonment. To date, no prosecutions have been made under UK legislation.
"Obviously in summer we get really anxious. All activists and professionals working around FGM get anxious because this is the time that families take their children back home. This is the time when all the professionals need to be really alert," said Momoh.
"There is no hard evidence in figures about what is happening in the UK because it's a hush-hush thing. It's only now that a few people are beginning to talk about it, which is good because change will only come from within and the numbers coming forward are rising. But there is a lot of family pressure. When I first started in 1997 we had two clinics in the country, now we have 16."
One woman told the Observer how a midwife examining her had raced retching and crying from the room. She had no idea she was "abnormal" before that happened. There is a clear need for women who have suffered FGM to be able to visit health professionals who understand what has happened to them. Momoh said that for those who wanted it, some surgical reversal work could sometimes be done on women with the most severe FGM procedure, Type III. For those with other types, counselling and support is all that can offered.
"Periods are agony – you get a lot of women who are determined to have reversals while they are having their period but then when the pain has stopped they lose their nerve again," said Leyla Hussein, 29, who has had to have years of counselling to cope with her own anger and distress at what was done to her as a child. It has helped her forgive her own mother's complicity in the mutilation she endured, though the older woman could not understand why Hussein would not have her own child, now aged seven, cut. But Hussein has vowed that she will be the last generation of women in her family to suffer.
"It was my husband who said on our honeymoon, 'We are not going to do this thing to any child of ours.' I was quite shocked, I hadn't questioned it. But I now realise a lot of men are not in favour of FGM, not when you tell them the woman is not going to enjoy herself."
Hussein is among a slowly but steadily growing band of women who have reacted against what happened to them with courage and a determination to stamp out FGM. Hussein has run support and discussion groups for affected women and for men, and formerly worked at the African Well Women's Centre in Leyton, east London.
"I can really relate to some of the women who are very angry, but how do you blame your mother, who loves you yet planned this for you? There is a lot of anger and resentment. Many women blame themselves and of course there are flashbacks to deal with. I had blackouts – anytime I had to have a smear test, I would pass out because lying in that position brought it back to me, but the nurse is used to me now and allows a little more time with the appointment." (EVERY SURVIVOR OF FGM GO THROUGH THIS WITH EVERY GYNO APPOINTMENT IT IS HELL ON EARTH! BY MASHUA) For Jason Morgan, a detective constable in the Met's FGM unit, Project Azure, the solution lies with those girls themselves: "Empowering youth, giving them the information, is the way forward. They are coming from predominantly caring and loving families, who genuinely believe this is the right thing to do. Many are under a great deal of pressure from the extended families.
"Sometimes it might be as simple as delivering the message of what the legal position is; sometimes we even give them an official letter, a document that they can show to the extended family that states quite firmly what will happen if the procedure goes ahead. The focus has to be on prevention."
Project Azure made 38 interventions in 2008, 59 in 2009 and 25 so far this year. For Morgan those statistics are just as important as getting a conviction. "We know it happens here although we have no official statistics, but we have seen very successful partnerships and we don't want to alienate communities through heavy-handed tactics.
"While a prosecution would send out a very clear message to practising communities, really it is very difficult and you would be relying on medical evidence, and in turn that would all hinge or whether the child consents to an examination."
But Naana Otoo-Oyortey is not so content with the softly-softly approach:( WHICH I STAND WITH HER AND 100% AGREE PEOPLE STOP BEING SOFT OR BLOODY CULTURE SENSITIVE WITH THIS ATROCITY LISTEN TO US WE HAVE SUFFERED AND WE WILL NOT LET OUR CHILDREN SUFFER SO DO YOUR JOB! BY MASHUA AGAINST FGM) "We have anecdotal evidence that it is being done here. So someone is not doing their job: it's an indication that the government has been failing to protect children. The commitment is hollow."
Head of the leading anti-FGM charity Forward UK, Otoo-Oyortey said people value the FGM tradition as something which holds a community together and gives it structure. "It's seen as a party, a FGM party because it's a celebration – people expect it as a way of welcoming a girl. A lot of women will mention to us that there have been no prosecutions here so why do we worry about the law? At the end of the day who will know?
"And we cannot just blame the women as the men are silently supporting it by paying for it. The new government's lack of a position on FGM is very worrying. We don't know what they will do, but we do know that the summer holidays are here again and we will be left to pick up the pieces in a few weeks' time."
And for those who will undergo "FGM" this summer, the effects will be lifelong. Miriam was six when she had her cutting party at her home in Somalia, two years before war arrived to force her family out.
When she was 12, doctors were horrified to find that what they thought was a cyst in her body was actually several years of period blood that had been blocked from leaving her body. Unable to have children, she now lives and works in England and worries about other girls. "I'd seen so many people undergo FGM, all my neighbours, so I knew one day it was going to happen to me. We knew what was happening," Miriam said.
"The little girls who were born in Europe have no clue. They will be traumatised a lot more. The only thing they know is that they are going away – that's what they say, 'We're going on a holiday'.
"Then her life and her head are going to be messed up. It's amazing how many people are in mental health care because of their culture. Don't get me wrong, I have religion and culture and I love where I'm from and I love what I stand for. But culture should not be about torture.
"Why would anyone want to go and cut up a seven- or eight-year-old child? People need to wake up — you are hurting your child, you are hurting your daughter, you're not going to have a grandchild, so wake up."
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and standing up for Women’s Rights.
And the Chairperson of a worldwide campaign against FGM.
http://twitter.com/Mashua
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mashua-Against-FGM/225406701415
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
FGM the main cause of FISTULA in Kenya , when FGM goes wrong.
PLEASE VOTE HELP ME END FGM.... http://www.startupnation.com/leading-moms-in-business/contestant/9343/index.php
FGM CAUSES A LIFE TIME OF PAIN ..NOT ALL WOMEN CHILDREN CAN ACCESS RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERIES.
PLEASE VOTE HERE
http://www.startupnation.com/leading-moms-in-business/contestant/9343/index.php
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and standing up for Women’s Rights.
And the Chairperson of a worldwide campaign against FGM.
http://twitter.com/Mashua
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mashua-Against-FGM/225406701415
FGM CAUSES A LIFE TIME OF PAIN ..NOT ALL WOMEN CHILDREN CAN ACCESS RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERIES.
PLEASE VOTE HERE
http://www.startupnation.com/leading-moms-in-business/contestant/9343/index.php
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and standing up for Women’s Rights.
And the Chairperson of a worldwide campaign against FGM.
http://twitter.com/Mashua
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mashua-Against-FGM/225406701415
Thursday, July 1, 2010
IN KENYA Family cries out for justice over girl raped by Catholic priest:(
A Catholic priest has been accused of raping a schoolgirl only minutes after giving her bananas and oranges for her sick mother in hospital and praying for her. The priest, who was serving at Gekano Parish in Kisii Diocese in November last year when the incident reportedly occurred, then tried to swear the 16-year-old girl to secrecy with a promise of education.
A senior administrator in the diocese, also a priest, confirmed that a complaint had reached the bishop’s office over the matter, and said investigations were ongoing.
But the girl’s family suspects a cover-up plot, citing the fact that the accused priest has since been moved from the diocese and the conduct of another priest who later visited their home to collect the clothes worn by the girl at the time she was allegedly raped.
The family has also accused the police of inaction even though they reported the matter to the Keroka police station.
The Class Seven girl is said to have gone to the priest’s house to return the plastic bag in which she carried the fruit to her mother who was at St Elizabeth Gekano health centre about 70 metres from where he lived.
The woman had been admitted with malaria on November 23 last year, and her daughter was taking care of her.
The priest visited the sick woman to pray with her between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. the following day.
“After praying he asked me if I had taken any food, but I said that I had no appetite. He asked me if I would take some bananas and oranges.
“He said that he had some fruits in his house which he wished to give to me. I accepted. But the priest instructed my daughter to make sure that she returned the plastic bag,” the mother told the Sunday Nation this week.
“Within a short time the girl had brought a bunch of bananas and two oranges. I ate one and gave one to the nurse,” she said.
The mother of six said that after removing the fruit her daughter returned the bag to the priest’s house as instructed.
“She stayed there for long, and I started getting worried where she was. She was supposed to go home and prepare lunch for her siblings, and yet the keys for the house were on my bed,” the mother said.
“She did not come back and instead went straight home. In the evening I decided to leave hospital and go home and asked her why she returned without taking the keys, but she kept quiet.”
She said the following day her daughter opened up and told her what had happened.
“While in the house he asked me why my parents were always fighting, but I kept quiet,” the girls said. “He then asked me to allow him touch my breast, but I declined again as I got frightened.”
Warned her
She said the priest forced himself on her, tore her clothes and then defiled her. The girl said the priest then promised to assist her to pursue her education and warned her not to disclose to any person what happened as people would laugh at him.
Veronica Ogato, a nurse at the health centre, said she, too, suspected that something bad had happened. She recalled that when the priest came she was attending to the mother of the victim.
“He came in, greeted us all and prayed, then he left with the girl,” she said. The nurse said she grew worried when the girl stayed for long in the priest’s house as the mother was complaining.
“I later saw the girl seated next to the fence of the church in tattered clothes, using her sweater to cover her torn clothes. I sensed that something must have gone wrong,” Ms Ogato said.
“She looked depressed and stressed, but I did not tell the sick mother,” she said. “At 4 p.m. I passed by her parents’ place and asked to be allowed to talk to her. I came with her to my house and persuaded her to tell me what happened. She opened up and narrated to me what had happened.”
She said the girl told her that a “bad man” had torn her clothes off and defiled her. The priest then gave her Sh100 as a bribe to silence, her but she refused to take it.
“As a nurse, the following day I decided to give her an injection so that she did not conceive as it was three days after her monthly period,” Ms Ogato said.
The family said the girl at one time even attempted suicide after her schoolmates began to tease her. The parents moved her to a different school. The family has also become the laughing stock of the village, mocked by villagers who accuse them of “exchanging their daughter for a bunch of bananas and two oranges”. The mother said that a day after the rape, the suspected priest visited her home, prayed for her and gave her the sacrament.
On November 26, the girl’s mother claimed that Father Zachary Bikeri, the priest in charge of Gekano Parish, visited their home to purportedly ask for forgiveness over the incident on behalf of the priest.
“We prayed together, and after prayers he had a written statement which he asked my husband, daughter and me to append our signature to. The statement said the church was going to act on the allegations, and so we obliged.
“He then took the clothes that my daughter had worn when the incident occurred to take to the bishop so appropriate action could be taken against the priest,” the mother said.
Delayed to report
She said they believed that justice would be done and that was why they did not report the matter to police.
The girl’s mother said when she threatened to raise the alarm, her daughter’s clothes were returned to her on April 12, but they had been cleaned.
The Sunday Nation made several attempts to obtain a comment by phone from the accused priest on June 11 but without success. “I am on the road and will call you back ... I will call you back please,” he said and then switched off his phone.
Fr Bikeri told the Sunday Nation that he could only talk to the girl’s father.
“As you can see I am attending to another visitor, and you will have to wait or else you come another day,” Fr Bikeri said and then went back to his house.
Father Jeremiah Nyakundi, the administrator who is third in line in the Kisii Catholic Diocese, admitted that the complaint had reached the bishop’s office.
“We received the complaint about the defilement in December last year, and it was that time that the priest was moved in order to allow for investigations to go on,” Fr Nyakundi said.
However, Father Nyakundi said only the Kisii Catholic Diocese Bishop Joseph Mairura was in a position to tell how far the investigations had gone.
“What I can confirm is that the priest is not in Kisii diocese as he was moved, and it is my hope that the case will be completed, but at the moment it is still an allegation,” Fr Nyakundi said.
The bishop was out of office when we tried to contact him. The victim’s father says he unsuccessfully sought a meeting with Bishop Mairura in January.
“On January 18, 2010, I went to see him but he did not meet me. I was told that he was busy, and I had to leave,” the father said. Keroka police boss Ramson Lolmodoni said they did not know about the incident.
“I have tried to search for the case in our occurrence books, but I am unable to get it; even if he had reported, it was too late as we could not act,” Mr Lolmodoni said.The girl’s father is bitter about the leadership of the church which he accuses of abandoning his daughter and protecting the priest.
“She was tormented, and we have not been able to get her professional counselling services due to lack of resources. This is the question I have been asking the leadership of the church: why are they doing this to us?” he said.
On March 11 this year, the victim’s father went to local chief Jane Matara to report the incident. She advised him to report it to the police.
He said he went to Keroka police station on March 29 to report the matter, but the area OCS told him that it was too late to act on the case. “He (the accused priest) has been calling us and promising that he would pay for the education of our daughter in a boarding school provided we did not report the matter.”
“And at the same time, we were to tell the bishop that all the allegations against him were lies so that he could compensate us, which we have declined,” the victim’s father said.:(
I SAY THIS RAPIST SHOULD GO TO JAIL!! WHAT MAKES HIM THINK RAPING A GIRL AFTER OFFERING TWO ORANGES AND BANANAS AND HIS FILTHY PRAYERS HE HAS THE RIGHT TO RAPE AND ROB THE BABY GIRL CHILDHOOD? AND THE SHAMELESS SELFISH DEMON DARES CALLING AND SHOWING UP AND PROMISING TO BUY THE SILENCE WITH EDUCATION?
THE OCS AT Keroka police station SHAME ON YOU FOR SAYING IT IS TOO LATE TO TAKE ACTION AGAINST THIS PIG!!!! LOCK HIM UP!!!!!! I AM TIRED THAT ANY MAN CAN BUY THEIR WAY OUT AFTER SUCH AN ACT OF VIOLENCE!!!
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and standing up for Women’s Rights.
And the Chairperson of a worldwide campaign against FGM.
http://twitter.com/Mashua
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mashua-Against-FGM/225406701415
Friday, June 25, 2010
FGM Charities targeting Africans have questionable motives..story by Nation newspaper.
First, they came for our babies. Now, they want to adopt African women’s private parts. Yes, a charity based in the United States wants you to “adopt a clitoris”.
Clitoraid claims to help victims of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Burkina Faso by funding a “Pleasure Hospital” in this West African country that will surgically rebuild women’s “organs of pleasure”. Its spiritual leader, who goes by the name Prophet Rael, says that he founded the private non-profit organisation to help as many circumcised women as possible to “be whole again”.
Clitoraid is getting support from various US-based organisations, including those purporting to be feminist. (Interestingly, the government of Burkina Faso has already been performing these reconstruction surgeries for free.)
Now no-one can deny that FGM has had a devastating physical and emotional effect on millions of girls and women in Africa. Study upon study has shown that FGM — in all its forms — cripples women physically, makes childbirth and sex extremely painful and leaves lasting scars on women’s psyches. It cannot be tolerated or encouraged in this day and age.
So why is this organisation and its advocates receiving so much flak from none other than African women themselves?
In a blog posting titled “Can? We? Save? Africa?”, San Francisco-based Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg explains: “For years now, African women have been complaining that even as we are engaged in domestic campaigns to end the practice of female circumcision within our communities, the eager participation by Westerners, particularly Western feminists, has done much more harm than good.
“In a nutshell, Western feminists have taken over the space, displaced African women’s voices on the issue and have carelessly thrown about their neo-colonial weight in ways that have served only to further entrench the issue.”
Kamau-Rutenberg has now started a campaign that questions the motives of Clitoraid and other campaigns like it, including one called Underwear for Africa that targets orphans in Kenya.
Started in 2007 by the US-based charity Mothers Fighting for Others, the campaign aims to collect underwear for distribution to Kenyan orphanages, IDP camps and such places where underwear is apparently in short supply.
The organisation claims to have donated 2,000 pairs of underwear to children living in two IDP camps in Kenya in April 2009. A noble gesture, but why does it bother so many Africans?
“PART OF THE PROBLEM WITH PHILANTHROPY towards Africa is that of ease,” explains Kamua-Rutenberg, who as head of a non-profit organisation in the US says she keeps running into well-meaning but completely off-the-mark efforts to “save” Africa. Unfortunately, the devil is always in the details. In the rush to simplify complex situations such as the one in Darfur, we lose understanding of historical context and how that impacts what is currently happening.”
Central to the debate is the question of dignity. If African women’s body parts can be appropriated — or “adopted” — by well-intentioned, albeit ignorant, Westerners, then what will be appropriated next? If they can adopt our bodies, what’s stopping them from “adopting” entire nations?
A case in point is the singer Madonna’s relentless campaign to adopt Malawian children even in the face of opposition from the parents of the children themselves.
James Kambewa, a security guard in South Africa and the father of five-year old girl Mercy, is challenging Madonna’s right to keep his daughter, but admits that he does not have the kind of money to hire a lawyer who will take Madonna to court. Are his rights and dignity worth less than hers because he is poor?
Recently, at the Pan-African Media Conference, Prof Guy Berger from South Africa argued that Africa’s negative image in the international media will only be fixed if the reality of Africa is fixed first. In other words, when African countries become wealthy, well-functioning societies, the international media will have no choice but to focus on the positive.
I beg to differ. In the last few years, African countries, including conflict-ravaged Sudan and Ethiopia, have enjoyed double-digit economic growth rates, but one would never know it by looking at images of these countries in the international media, where war, witchcraft, poverty and famine in Africa make more headlines than thriving economies.
Perhaps the question we should be asking is: Who is saving who? In his book The Road to Hell, Micheal Maren writes: “The starving African exists as a point in space from which we measure our (Westerners’) own wealth, success, and prosperity, a darkness against which we can view our own cultural triumphs...
“The belief that we can help is an affirmation of our own worth in the grand scheme of things… And it is in their (Africans’) helplessness that they become a marketable commodity.”
Ambassador Lucy .s .Mashua President of Mashua's voice for the voiceless International
Assisting refugees in the US and representation in advocasy
The Global Ambassador for fighting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and standing up for Women’s Rights.
And the Chairperson of a worldwide campaign against FGM.
http://twitter.com/Mashua
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mashua-Against-FGM/225406701415
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