[Girls hospitalized after female genital mutilation]

East African Standard (Nairobi). Monday, 24 June 2002.

Titus Maero, Diana Etsabo

Twenty girls are admitted at Ortum Mission Hospital in West Pokot after undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM). And among them, 10 have successfully been operated on by a team of doctors from niversity of Nairobi led by Dr Hillary Mabeya.

The girls aged between 10 and 16 were rescued from bleeding to death by a local NGO, Setat Women Group - North Rift Chapter.

The organisation's vice chairperson, Mrs Milka Krop, said they identified the girls through their field officers based at Parua, Lomut, Cheptuyal and Masol areas.

Krop told reporters at their Makutano township offices yesterday that the organisation had intensified the war against FGM through seminars conducted at the village level.

Currently FGM is illegal the country, added Krop noting that a list of parents who allow their daughters to be circumcised is being compiled to institute legal proceedings as one way of discouraging the vice. Krop further noted that circumcised girls eventually dropped out of school to be married off in exchange for cattle since they are subsequently regarded as women.

Citation:

Titus Maero, Diana Etsabo. [Girls hospitalized after female genital mutilation]. East Afr Standard (Nairobi). 2002-06-24

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