Join war against female ‘cut’, teachers urged
What you need to know:
- Linah Jebii Kilimo urged principals to fight the vice through music, drama, poems, songs and debates
Girls as young as seven years are being forced to undergo female circumcision, a head teachers’ forum heard.
The prevalence is highest among the Somali in northern Kenya, at 97.7 per cent.
The practice is also rife in Kisii County at 96.1 per cent and among the Maasai at 73.2 per cent, said Mrs Linah Jebii Kilimo, the chairperson of the Anti-Female Genital Mutilation Board.
She appealed to head teachers to help fight female circumcision, saying the practice was perpetuated by myths and stigma attached to girls who have not undergone the rite among the communities that practise it.
Speaking during the closing ceremony of Kenya Secondary School Heads Association conference at Wild Waters in Mombasa on Saturday, Mrs Kilimo said there had been a significant reduction in the prevalence of female circumcision from 37.6 per cent in 1998 to 27.1 per cent currently due to strict laws.
“In Kenya, FGM is mostly performed on girls between 12 and 18 years old, but most recent studies are showing girls as young as seven years are also being taken through the practice to avoid detection,” she said.
She went on: “I have come to you teachers, the people who shape social change in communities, to be ambassadors in the prohibition of this harmful cultural practice called FGM,” she added.
She urged principals to fight the vice through music, drama, poems, songs and debates. The school curriculum can also play a huge role in eradicating the harmful practice.
