Maasai Girls' Harrowing Flight From FGM Attempts As Cultural Myths Cement Practice In Kajiado

• Statistics from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics reveal the widespread prevalence of FGM in Kajiado, with the practice deeply rooted in cultural myths
• TUKO.co.ke spoke to Maasai girls who detailed their harrowing escape from home after finding out that their parents were organising how they would be circumcised
• The girls found refuge in a rescue centre situated deep in the interior of Kajiado County, which is now offering them a new lease of life

As the darkness covered the vast Maasai landscape deep in the interior of Kajiado County, a young girl on the brink of teenagehood overheard a rather unusual conversation between her parents.

Mary (not her real name) was just 12 years old, and that conversation between her parents shattered her dreams and aspirations to pursue law after finishing her education.

In an exclusive interview with TUKO.co.ke, the Maasai girl learned that plans were underway for her to undergo circumcision so that she could start preparing for marriage.

"My mother was speaking to my dad on that fateful night. I heard her saying that I would undergo FGM the following morning," Mary recounted to this writer with a hint of sadness in her voice.

The FGM discussion left her restless that night as she had learnt through mentorship programmes in school and church about the adverse physical and mental effects of the retrogressive practice.

Mary, who was in primary school, would wake up the following morning to a female guest roaming in her parents' compound, ready to perpetrate the cut on her.

The young girl had to muster the courage to run away from home that very morning, a decision she says was scary as she had no one she could trust, even in her own extended family, as it was also deeply entrenched in the culture of FGM.

It was while she was escaping that she remembered a rescue centre where girls at risk of FGM in her community found refuge.

"When I saw that woman in our compound that morning, I knew I had to run. As I was escaping, I decided to go a rescue centre run by our church where we had been taught about the bad effects of female circumcision. I walked all the way to this place and asked for help," she recalled.

Mary found help at the Ilmarba Rescue Centre, which has been her home since that harrowing incident.

The rescue centre started in 2017, and since then, it has offered refuge to tens of girls escaping from forced circumcision and early marriages in the interior parts of Kajiado county.

Another lucky escape

As my interview with Mary continued, her friend, who also fled home to evade the cut, joined us and opened up about her own escape from the cut.

Mary's friend, Joy (real name withheld to protect identity), also overheard talks within her family that she would be circumcised in days that followed. She became uneasy and knew she needed to run away.

The young girl said she was apprehensive after overhearing the conversation. Knowing that she could not talk her family out of it, running away was the only solution she could think of.

"I woke up the next day and decided to flee to my grandmother's home with the hope that I would be safe at her house and not forced to undergo FGM," she recalled.

However, while at her grandmother's, her parents pursued her and insisted that she had to undergo the cut in line with the Maasai traditions so that they could find her a suitor.

"I had been taught in church and school how it was wrong for girls to be circumcised. So I fled again from my grandma's as my parents were relentless," she said.

With no family to turn to, her only hope lay with the rescue centre where she went and sought refuge.

"My parents were not quite happy with me when I came here. But through the help of the pastor who runs this rescue centre and who talked to them several times, they forgave me. They said I could continue with my education from this centre because if I go home, they would expect me to undergo FGM and get married soon after," she said.

Prevalence of FGM in Kajiado

The county remains one of the FGM hotspot areas, a practice deeply rooted in age-old and unproven cultural myths held by the Maasai community.

The latest statistics from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (2022) showed that 15% of Kenyan women have undergone the barbaric cut.

In 2014, a survey by the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey showed that the prevalence of this practice in Kajiado was 78%.

Nearly a decade later, the prevalence is reported to have only reduced by 15% as perpetrators deploy sinister tricks to continue this violence against women and girls while also evading the wrath of the law.

The government has enacted legislation over the years to outlaw FGM, including the Prohibition of FGM Act 2011 and the Children’s Act 2022.

Cultural myths and tricks enabling continuation of FGM in Kajiado

TUKO.co.ke also spoke to Haron Oloruma, a pastor and anti-FGM activist in Kajiado, who detailed why the backward practice is still thriving in Kajiado in this day and age.

"Here in Kajiado, FGM is very prevalent. Especially during school holidays when many girls are forced to undergo the rite. That is why we started the rescue centre, hoping to save the girls who needed a safe haven from home," he said.

"Though the government has been ramping up the fight against FGM, the perpetrators have gotten wiser in this region as they have come up with clever ways to continue the practice without the knowledge of the authorities," the anti-FGM activist added.

He revealed that traditionists who perpetrate the bizarre cut in Kajiado have been using tricks such as taking their teen daughters for FGM under the guise of visiting relatives.

"For instance, when the schools close, you will hear that most teen girls in the village have been taken to visit relatives or grandmothers, but in actual sense, they mean they have gone to be circumcised," he revealed.

Cross-border FGM

Oloruma also cited the Namanga border as one of the biggest loopholes in the fight against FGM in Kajiado county.

He said Kajiado teen girls are often taken to Tanzania through the porous border and are made to undergo the cut without the knowledge of the police.

"Our proximity to the border has time and again sabotaged the fight against FGM because the perpetrators take the girls to the Tanzania border where they are circumcised, and we only find out about it way later after the damage has been done," he said.

Additionally, according to the anti-FGM activist, a lot of brainwashing and scaremongering among the Maasais has enabled FGM to thrive, as the women and girls are warned of dire mythical consequences should they fail to accept the mutilation.

The most common myth that they are told is that they will turn into promiscuous ladies if they do not accept to undergo the cut and will end up disappointing their future husbands.

The unproven myth promises Maasai teen girls that they will remain faithful to their husbands and will not have sexual desires for other men after undergoing FGM.

"Others are also brainwashed into accepting the cut as the perpetrators tell them they will not get any husbands to marry them should they turn down the opportunity to undergo circumcision. In Maasai land, it is belived that every woman must be circumcised in order to be married," he said.

These deeply held cultural myths have seen some Maasai women and girls willingly accept to undergo the cut to evade the serious and unproven consequences promised by the perpetrators.

Liaising with authorities in fight against FGM

According to the cleric, fighting against FGM in the nomadic community has received a major boost through collaborations with the authorities who offer them protection during rescue missions.

He said at times, activists have to rescue girls on the brink of undergoing FGM or early marriages, and they thus have to be offered police protection as they storm homes.

"As we speak, we recently did one of the hardest rescue operation of one of the girls. We had to storm the homestead as the ceremony was happening, but we had police protection who used tear gas to disperse the enraged locals who wanted to beat us up," he narrated.

Combating FGM in Kajiado

According to Oloruma, education is the surefire way of combating FGM, especially in communities where it is deeply ingrained.

Statistics by the KDHS in 2022 also showed that only 1% of girls whose mothers had attained more than secondary education had undergone circumcision, while 11% of girls whose mothers had no education were circumcised.

"Increasing literacy levels will ensure that future generations see FGM for the negative practice that it is, and that is why we ensure all the girls who come here get an education. I would urge everyone to join this fight against FGM. It should even be included in the education curriculum," he said.

Despite the tremendous efforts that he and his team are making in fighting the cut, Oloruma and his team said they still face a myriad of challenges not only in rescue missions but also in taking care of the girls who are rescued.

"The government has also ordered the closure of all children's home and that is including rescue centres in the next 10 years. So we are also working around the clock to ensure that the girls we have here will be safely reconciled with families and guardians. We also hope to win the fight against FGM within that timeline so that our girls here in Kajiado will remain safe long after we no longer have such rescue centres," he said.