Alarm as rogue medics move to ‘sanitise’ FGM
What you need to know:
- About 20 per cent of the 9.3 million women and girls who have undergone FGM across the country, had the procedure done, ironically, by healthcare workers.
Kisii County has the highest prevalence of medicalised FGM with some 90 per cent of the cuts performed by health workers with nurses/midwives accounting for the largest number.
Other hotspots are Narok, Kajiado, Elgeyo-Marakwet, Samburu, Mandera, Marsabit, Wajir, Garissa and Baringo.
Health workers are secretly helping some parents determined to have their daughters circumcised, a report by the Kenya Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society says.
The medics are carrying out female genital mutilation (FGM) in health centres.
The Society’s president, Dr Benjamin Odongo, expressed concern that the illegal procedure, referred to as medicalisation of FGM, is increasingly being performed by medical practitioners in clinical settings, moving away from untrained, traditional cutters.
INFANTS
About 20 per cent of the 9.3 million women and girls who have undergone FGM across the country, had the procedure done, ironically, by healthcare workers, who understand the risks, said the report still under compilation by the society’s secretariat.
“While medicalised FGM is perceived to be less risky, it also promotes the false belief that the procedure is medically beneficial or acceptable. Furthermore, some of the current FGM is being performed on infants or newborns,” Dr Odongo said. He spoke after the 43rd Annual Scientific Conference in Nairobi last week. The experts noted that the medicalised cut is even higher in urban settings at 28 per cent with major targets being newborns. However, the regulator, Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board, is yet to act on the matter.
One of the researchers, Prof Patrick Ndavi, who is an associate professor of obstetrics and gynaecology/epidemiology at the University of Nairobi and the coordinator for Africa Coordinating Centre for the abandonment of FGM, said the legal prohibition and criminalisation of the outdated practice has made its enthusiasts change tack by colluding with clinical attendants to operate infants in the least expected circumstances.
HOTSPOTS
“They are now circumventing the laws with the aid of the rogue elements in the medical profession, who hide behind the patient-doctor confidentiality to shield them from answering hard questions that may arise,” Prof Ndavi said.
The new trend is deemed responsible for the high prevalence of the cut in 20 hotspot counties despite multi-sectorial interventions to end it.
Kisii County has the highest prevalence of medicalised FGM with some 90 per cent of the cuts performed by health workers with nurses/midwives accounting for the largest number.
Other hotspots are Narok, Kajiado, Elgeyo-Marakwet, Samburu, Mandera, Marsabit, Wajir, Garissa and Baringo.
Among the communities, FGM prevalence is estimated at 93.6 per cent among the Somali, Samburu (86 per cent) Kisii (84.4 per cent) Wardei (82 per cent) and between 80 per cent and 74 per cent among the Pokot, Kuria, Rendile, Maasai, Marakwet and Orma.
Dr Odongo said medicalisation of FGM is a great concern that should be treated with great urgency before it reverses the milestones made in mother and child health.
