KENYA: 8 girls in hospital with FGC complications

Daily Nation (Kenya)
December 4, 2013

Girls taken to hospital after undergoing circumcision

by Wanjiru Macharia
Eight girls are undergoing treatment at the Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital after developing complications related to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

The girls aged between 16 and 20 years had secretly undergone the ritual at Teret area of Mau Narok on Monday night, December 2, 2013.

Three of them were pregnant while several others had young children and were breastfeeding the children who accompanied them to hospital.

The hospital Medical Superintendent Dr John Murima confirmed the girls had been brought to the hospital and were still undergoing check-up.

“The girls are here and they came in accompanied by police officers but I cannot comment on their conditions because they are still being analysed,” said Dr Murima.

He said he could only comment on their conditions after doctors at the hospital had conducted checks on all of them for a detailed report.

The girls arrived at the provincial hospital wrapped in blankets and with no other clothes on.

Ms Mary Tinga, a volunteer with Loreto Sisters Against FGM who took the girls to the hospital said the girls were found by the area chief and Administration Police officers following a tip off.

She said some of the girls had already been married off and were forced to undergo FGM by their husbands and other older women.

“The girls told me that their husbands insult them all the time telling them that their food is not cooked while older women chase them away when they go to fetch water from the river,” said Ms Tinga.

She said there were increased cases of FGM in the area and attributed this to the cultural belief that uncircumcised women cannot make good wives.

Ms Tinga said men who marry uncircumcised girls force them to undergo the dangerous exercise following pressure from their mothers and the community.

Some of the girls at the hospital said that they willingly underwent the operation to save their marriages since they already had children.

Ms Tinga said the circumcisers and the people who had taken the girls for the ritual fled when the chief and AP officers arrived at the scene.

She called on the government to make sure the people responsible are arrested and prosecuted.