Among the many reasons why it has been tough to root out Female Genital Mutilation from Kenya is the fact that it has been a cultural rite of passage, of which to the perpetrating communities, it is an important stage in the life of a woman because it prepares her for marriage hence they have found not an excuse not to exercise it.
As a nation, we need to remember that any cultural practice is based on the core values of a community; what the community believes in, has been doing for a long time and find a reason for doing. This hence makes it difficult to do away with a cultural practice especially due to the verifiable results it can claim.
As much as we all know FGM is a vice that is barbaric because it defies the sexual rights of the victim besides being dangerous due to the fact that those handling do not have the right surgical and nursing skills, the exercising communities will always hold onto the fact that it has been a long time practice that has had positive results to them.
The fight also is being crippled by the fact that most of the Kenyan communities that exercise FGM are marginalized and therefore lack basic exposal education; education that could have taught them a better culture by being the basis of rooting out the female circumcision culture. This is premised on the fact that it is always difficult to root out a culture until a better one is taught to the community in question.
Thus in the fight against FGM there is need first to understand why these communities exercise it and how they can be offered a better way of making them accomplish what they believe in other than mutilating a young female’s genitals.
In addition, the government needs to give priority to ensuring education reaches the marginalized communities because the longer they stay uneducated, the longer they will continue believing in some old uncouth practices like FGM leading to a prolonged fight against FGM period.