How men perpetuate FGM in Sebei region
Some candidates being prepared for the Female Genital Mutilation in Sebei Sun-region. The practice was outlawed in 2010. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- Mr Derrick Okoth, a medical officer, said through advocacy, communities are asking for alternatives rites of passage to replace FGM.
As the country continues to commemorate the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, local leaders and residents in the Sebei Sub-region say uneducated men are perpetuating Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) because they want to marry circumcised women.
Ms Harriet Aseko, the Community District Officer for Kapchorwa, told Monitor last weekend that FGM is being practiced in remote areas, particularly in caves and bushes in places with low levels of education.
“In some areas, it is the men who are the driving force. They say, ‘I want a clean woman. If you’re not cut, you are not clean. I cannot eat your food—it smells because you are unclean.’ These perceptions are deeply rooted in areas with high illiteracy, poor road infrastructure and limited exposure. In these communities, all [girls and women] know is to circumcise, get married and have children,’’ Ms Aseko said.
She identified some of the areas as Kaptanya, Kapsinda in Kapchorwa and rural places of Kween and Bukwo districts.
The government outlawed FGM in 2010, prescribing a 10-year jail term for any person convicted of the practice, among other sentences. Following the passing of the Act, however, FGM perpetrators developed new tactics, mutilating girls and women at night, especially in hard-to-reach valleys and hills of Sebei.
Ms Aseko recounted a recent case of a six-month pregnant woman who sought FGM after her husband refused to take her to a function, calling her “unclean.”
The woman underwent a poorly conducted procedure that left her severely injured and bleeding. She was later rushed to the hospital for emergency care.
Alternative rites
Mr Derrick Okoth, a medical officer, said through advocacy, communities are asking for alternatives rites of passage to replace FGM.
“People are asking us, ‘You are removing FGM as our culture—what is the alternative form of graduating a girl from childhood to adulthood? We need to shift all our programming strategies to develop alternative rites of passage to substitute FGM,” he said.
