By Daniel Odeke
Most communities in Kenya embrace a patriarchal community structure, where men own and control resources. Women have little or no voice in decision making and resources management. It is the elders who decide for the women and the youth. The youth are not listened to nor heard. An example is the Maa community who have deeply rooted cultural beliefs and practices. The legal context in Kenya has quite a host of laws against Female Genital Mutilation. The Children ACT 2001 (revised 2016) clearly states in article 14: No person shall subject a child to female circumcision, early marriage, or other cultural rites, that are likely to negatively affect the child’s life. The Prohibition of FGM ACT 2011 is a comprehensive piece of legislation that establishes the Anti-Female Genital Mutilation Board and sets out the offences and punishments for FGM and Circumcision in Kenya. Consent is not a defense to the crime of performing FGM/C in Kenya.
The existing laws and policy are important and necessary in fighting FGM/C, however, it’s more important to seek other interventions that have an equal effect, or more effect compared to the established laws and policies. One such interventions is Structured Dialogues with community members and gate keepers including cultural elders, female cutters (Traditional Birth Attendants) and religious leaders. This includes meaningful youth participation, comprehensive sexuality education through the whole school approach, providing alternatives to girls through education and economic empowerment, advocacy and engaging policy makers and duty bearers to commit to implement law and/or policies against FGM/C.
In this approach, men take lead in these dialogues. This gives women and youths a chance to express themselves, creating an open inter-generational and inter-gender discussions. Cultural conservations need a chance to be heard. Role models and champions are brought on board in the discussions. In the recent past, there has been improved conversations and reporting on FGM/C. The communities have formed Community Advisory Teams (CATs) to end FGM/C. The teams have been instrumental in developing and planning for Alternative Rites of Passage (ARP) and creating platforms for meaningful youth participation. All this has been made possible through community dialogues. These conversations have also created forums for other stakeholders such as teachers to report on child protection issues and deliberate on appropriate measures. There is, however, need to strengthen the capacity of teams, organizations and individuals engaging in the activities and processes of promoting community dialogues to address FGM/C, on resources mobilization, advocacy and lobbying to sustain implementation of interventions to end FGM/C. This approach can also be extended to cover and support stakeholders in counties practicing FGM.
Daniel Odeke is an SRHR Advocate at NAYA Kenya.
