A former member of the defunct Nyamira Count Council has launched an anti Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) campaign dubbed ‘Okoa Msichana’ following the recent statistics that ranked Gusii region as the second highest region that records a high number of FGM cases.
Speaking at Gesima market on Wednesday during the launching exercise, Mrs Jane Nyakango urged residents to shun the tradition that subjected girls to health risks.
She said the campaign aims at educating locals about the negative effects of the the vice besides working with relevant government agencies to seek ways of dealing with the issue rather than arresting those who may be found committing the crime.
“I have launched this exercise following the high rate at which our girls are being mutilated without the government knowing. Most of these incidents are done in secret and it is therefore difficult for the government to know what is exactly going on,” she said.
Nyakango challenged the National Anti-FGM campaign to change its tactics by involving community leaders if at all they wanted to eradicate the vice.
“FGM is a crime under the Kenyan law and no one disputes that. However, the national government is not cooperating with local leaders to end the crime. Most of those who are doing the sensitisation are outsiders hence making it difficult to make a huge change,” said Nyakango.
She however pleaded with the locals to find better ways of initiating the young ones from childhood to adulthood rather than subjecting them to FGM.
“FGM is not important in the contemporary society. We can find better ways of graduating our girls from childhood to adulthood and this can be done if we accept that the tradition is backward,” she said.