The elderly Elizabeth Chepkurui Barta who has since abandoned practicing FGM says her focus now is on how to help end the vice. [Photo: Pristone Mambili]

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When you meet Elizabeth Chepkurui Barta, there is no much fuss about her. But that is not the case because Barta is known in her community due to her advocacy against FGM.

I meet her in Mogotio Town centre during an anti-FGM campaign organized by Dandelion Africa.

Though she once supported the culture, she now fights it with passion.

She said she practiced the vice for many years since 1985. 

Her turning point was when she did the cut to an expectant girl who bled profusely.

The incident forced her to seek refuge in the bush fearing the wrath of the law that would befall on her.

She conceded having cut about 60 girls before she quit the practice.

“When the girl bled profusely I had no otherwise than to run and hide in the bush for fear of my life. I stayed there till I got information that the girl got well,” she said.

Since then, Barta has now become an ambassador in the fight against FGM.

“This is a bad vice and to those who still perpetrate such I call on them to stop as it is against the law and it destroys the future of girl child," she said.