FGM widespread despite ban

Thirty-seven of the 42 tribal communities among the Maasai in Kenya still practice female genital mutilation (FGM). The preferential age for the procedure used to be 15 – now it’s done to 11-year-olds. The Daily Maverick notes that the 2011 ban made the practice and capture of young girls for FGM in Kenya illegal, but it is still widespread even though research indicates a 20% drop in the practice. In 1997, Patrick Ngigi was often approached by young girls asking for help. It was not uncommon for Ngigi to hear that girls of 11 or 12 were being cut in a rite-of-passage ceremony, removing their genitalia in order to make them acceptable as women. The husband selected was sometimes 40, 50 or even 60 years old. Ngigi left the teaching profession to establish a safe house and rescue centre. Young girls who escape FGM and arranged childhood marriage either run away or escape into the unknown to save themselves from circumcision. Even with the Kenyan ban on the practice firmly in place, Ngigi has been working for 19 years to change the culture. The report notes that his House of Hope in Narok County provides continued education and boarding to girls. He is driven by the memories he has of meeting young girls who will never have the opportunity to get beyond Class Four.