More than 2,500 boys and girls underwent Genital mutilation in the month of December just in two district in Kenya.

About 2,500 boys and girls have been mutilated in Kuria West and East districts since the beginning of the month of December last year.

About 2,000 boys and 500 girls, some as young as nine years old, were initiated during the first two weeks of the month-long traditional rite of passage.

Parents and guardians have been playing hide-and-seek with the provincial administration and police after the government declared mutilation of girls illegal.

At least eight parents were being sought yesterday after they forced their daughters to face the knife.

Leaders and government officials led by area MP Wilfred Machage have vehemently opposed the mutilation of girls, commonly referred to as Female Genital Mutilation, and have vowed to bring the perpetrators to book.

The leaders say the tradition had retarded socio-economic development in the region.

More than 400 girls have sought refuge at two rescue camps set up by the government in collaboration with non-governmental organisations and community and faith-based organisations to shelter girls threatened with forced mutilation.

But there are fears that the efforts to save girls from mutilation could be fruitless because in previous years, almost three quarters of the girls who underwent alternative rite of passage training in such rescue camps were forced by parents or guardians to undergo mutilation on returning home.(this methods hardly work after all the girls return home eventually after all is said and all the FGM activists goes home.)

Although the Children’s Act outlaws mutilation of girls below 18 years of age, parents from this community have continued to indiscriminately mutilate their young daughters with impunity.

For the past two weeks, mutilators have been doing a roaring business, charging up to Sh500 per initiate.

NGOs including Action Aid Kenya, Adventist Development Relief Agency (Adra) and World Vision are sponsoring the alternative rite of passage training at the two rescue camps at Komotobo and St Teresa’s primary boarding school at a cost of more than Sh3 million so sad that all this money goes in the drain.

Adra programme coordinator Mr Robert Onsando said Fgm would take time to be eradicated because it was part of the community’s culture.(come on this is not culture it is pure crime !)

Please NGOs stop wasting money on this alternative rites of passage this girls always goes back home to the villages while you pack your belongings and leave...they go back and they are mutilated as the parents threaten to disown them not pay their school fees or peer group stigma discrimination. instead invest on tougher laws.
As I recall this was once a village that 20 boys could not urinate or walk for months after circumcision went wrong and they had to be flown overseas for reconstructive surgeries:(.

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.
Leading in lobbying for the HR5137 The Girl's Protection Act sponsored by Joseph Crowley and Mary Bono Mack.
http://twitter.com/Mashua
http://mashuavoiceforthevoiceless.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mashua-Against-FGM/225406701415