Edinah Nyasuguta Omwenga was fighting for her life after suffering postpartum complications when he heard doctors at a hospital in Kenya describe his case as a typical example of the dire, and even deadly, effects of excision.
Unlike thousands of young people in East Africa, Edinah Nyasuguta Omwenga was subjected to medicalized genital mutilation, That is to say, it was a health worker, in a hospital, who performed her clitoral ablation.
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“I was seven years old (…) no one told me that this would cause me so many problems,” says this woman, now 35 years old.
When Kenya banned female genital mutilation (FGM) in 2011, few had anticipated that the procedure, traditionally performed in public With pomp and ceremony, it would be moved to clinics and private homes, sheltered from the view of others.
Both professionals and communities defend medicalized female genital mutilation as a means to preserve tradition, despite the risks to girls' physical, psychological and sexual healthwho are often under 15 years old when they are subjected to it.
According to a 2021 Unicef report, these types of medicalized ablations are increasing in Egypt, Sudan, Guinea and Kenya.
'World's End'
In Kisii county, 300 kilometers west of the capital Nairobi, more than 80% of these mutilations are carried out by health workers, according to the government.
Doris Kemunto Onsomu spent years performing the incision on girls in this mountainous region, believing it was a safer alternative to the traditional procedure she endured as a teenager.
“As I was aware of the risk of infection, I used a new scalpel each time,” he told AFP, saying he thought he was “helping the community.” Requests came from families from all social strata. “Traditions are not linked to education. S“It takes a long time to unlearn certain practices,” estimates Doris, 67 years old.
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Tina (who asked that her real name not be used) was at her grandmother's house in Kisii when a medical worker arrived late at night to operate on her.
I was 8 years old. “It was like it was the end of the world, it was very painful,” the daughter of an engineer told AFP.
By order of his grandmother, he had to remain in isolation until the wound healed. Now 20 years old, This student at the University of Nairobi campaigns against this practice.
Rosemary Osano, the youngest of five sisters, says she “felt pressure” to follow the tradition.
“People think that we have adopted Western culture in many ways (…) so they defend (female genital mutilation) as a way to preserve the culture,” says the 31-year-old woman.
Creating awareness
The practice also persists within these communities abroad. A London court convicted a British woman in October of taking a three-year-old girl to a clinic in Kenya to undergo medicalized mutilation.
Those who still practice female genital mutilation “say that without this excision, the young woman will become a prostitute”, activist Esnahs Nyaramba explains to AFP. President William Ruto has urged Kenyans to stop practicing it, but tougher sanctions are needed for Esnahs Nyaramba.
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“If a family member is sent to jail (…) people will be afraid,” he says. But for other activists, a more repressive policy could make the practice even more clandestine.
Several NGOs have decided to focus on raising awareness so that families opt for alternative rites of passage.
AFP
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