ActionAid Kenya has launched a nationwide month-long campaign aimed at creating more awareness against FGM and raise funds to build Safe Houses for rescued girls in West Pokot and other areas across the country where girls consider schools safe havens.
Speaking during the launch event in Nairobi, ActionAid’s head of fundraising, Ms Susan Otieno said that although awareness against the vice has increased in recent years, some communities are crafting new ways of ensuring their daughters are circumcised without the law catching up with them.
“We were very disturbed when we found out that in some counties like Taita Taveta, parents are subjecting their infant daughters to the brutal cut, as early as a day old. This is outrageous. When we sought to find out why they are doing this when the daughters are so young, we realized that this could be because it is easier to reduce public scrutiny and also because the children are unable to resist at that age,” said Ms Otieno, adding that areas like Taita Taveta where FGM is at 22%, parents are circumcising their girls when they are just days old.
According to statistics from the Kenya Demographic and Health Indicator Survey, 2015, about 1 in every 5 women in the country has undergone the brutal cut. The survey also reveals that 1 in every 10 teenage girls aged between 15 and 19 years in Kenya has undergone FGM, with more than 20% of women over 30 years have also been mutilated. The statistics further indicate that It is in light of these shocking statistics that Action Aid Kenya calls on all Kenyans to support the new Anti-FGM Campaign that is targeted at raising Sh14 million.
“We urge our fellow Kenyans to donate as low as Sh50 each via the MPESA Paybill 899610, Account Name: End FGM to aid the campaign and help put a smile into thousands of young girls countrywide who have been affected by the vice,” said Ms Otieno.
