In Kuria, girls’ education is secondary to FGM
Elderly Ilchamus woman (centre) joins girls in a dance at Ngambo Secondary School in Baringo South on November 28, 2015 during the celebration to mark the pass out of 180 girls who underwent alternative rite of passage. PHOTO | CHEBOITE KIGEN | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
Among the four clans in Kuria community- Bugumbe, Bukira, Nyabasi and Bairege - as important as it is, education for girls is secondary to FGM.
It is a painful moment for thousands of girls who are forced out of school to undergo the cut before they are married off by their dowry-hungry parents.
Education officials say FGM gives girls a false feeling of womanhood which leads to early marriages.
About 62 per cent of girls who enrol in primary schools do not make it to secondary due to early marriages.
Among the Kuria, female circumcision is a rite of passage that everyone is so passionate about that they just can’t discard it.
Several campaigns by government and NGOs against the practice have not done much to stop the backward Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
It is a painful moment for thousands of girls who are forced out of school to undergo the cut before they are married off by their dowry-hungry parents.
Among the four clans in Kuria community- Bugumbe, Bukira, Nyabasi and Bairege - as important as it is, education for girls is secondary to FGM.
It is a time of dancing and celebration in various homes as they circumcise their young girls. Some victims, clad in lesos and with painted faces, have already faced the knife and are now considered “mature women”.
Maureen Chacha,14, and Jane Ghati,17, are already house wives married to elderly men in Kehancha.
NEARBY TOWNS
In some of the worst cases, some girls are engaged as barmaids and house girls in nearby towns of Isebania, Migori and Kisii after marriages they were forced into broke down.
Even free primary education meant nothing to girls in Kuria as only boys got the chance to attended school.
Education officials say FGM gives girls a false feeling of womanhood which leads to early marriages.
About 62 per cent of girls who enrol in primary schools do not make it to secondary due to early marriages.
“Parents opt to educate boys because Kuria is poor. They believe girls are a source of wealth through dowry,” says Mr Samson Michira of Action Aid Kenya, which is among organizations that are providing information on the benefit of education for the girl child.
“We also lack women role models in this community, Mr Michira said.
Migori Senator Wilfred Machage’s calls on parents to stop the practice have fallen of deaf years. He wants girls to decide if they want to go through the cut when they reach the age of 18.
