Gender 
Kenyan court prevents father from mutilating daughters 

afrol.com, 17 December - In a historic ruling, the Kenyan Rift Valley Provincial Court issued a court order preventing a father from forcing his daughters to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM). The case was brought up by the 15 and 17 year old girls with the support of human rights activists.

On 29 November the girls filed a court application under certificate through an attorney, arguing that the father had not obtained the consent of the girls to undergo FGM under the Keiyo customary law. The court immediately issued an injunction restraining the father from having the mutilation implemented until the case was heard and determined.

The girls' father had threatened not to continue financing their education if they would not undergo the "circumcision" - making the two secondary school girls fearing for their further education and bring the case to court.

Although there are two Presidential decrees banning FGM in Kenya, there are no laws banning the practice, which has deep, traditional roots in the northern and eastern parts of the country. In addition to deprive women of sexual pleasure, the practice often has serious health implications, leading to infections, cystitis, sterility, birth complications, maternal death and, in many documented cases, death as an immediate consequence of the rite.

The Rift Valley court order therefore is seen as a major victory in the declared 'war' against FGM by Kenyan women's organisations, giving the first legal precedence ever. Kenya's Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Organisation (MYWO), the national women's body, therefore received the message with joy.

Although concrete successes in the fight against FGM have been limited even in Kenya, the MYWO, with Government support, has succeeded in making it a national issue, widely discussed in Kenyan media. The open discussion of the issue, supported by this week's court order, is seen as an important step in making attitudes change. Much work is also done by organisations and institutions to introduce alternative rites, which offer traditionalist the possibility to maintain tradition while changing practice.

Public debate in Kenya has, however, focused most on the legal aspects of FGM, something that has enhanced strongly the last weeks with the case of the two girls in Rift Valley and a possible murder case against a traditional circumciser. The latter women had caused a 16-years old girl to bleed to death immediately after undergoing FGM on 10 December. The MYWO told Kenyan media it was to have the circumciser "prosecuted to serve as a deterrent," calling the woman "a murderer". 

 

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