Turning tide against ‘ cut’ as circumciser abandons razor
During the months of August, November and December, most women in Baringo and Rongai in Nakuru County are expected to go through a rite of passage.
Female circumcision also known as female genital cutting is still rampant where dozens of girls go through the rite either willingly or forcefully.
Despite the government ban, the tradition still fights back.
ANATOMY
However, few members of the communities who have transformed and learnt of the impacts of the practice are now abandoning the practice despite strong opposition from some quarters.
For more than 10 years, Ms Elizabeth Chepkorir was a female circumciser in Baringo and Nakuru counties. During that period, more than 1,000 women went through her hands.
Today, the 66-year-old is a women’s rights activist and a campaigner against the cut.
“I learnt the skills from my grandmother who had circumcised girls for a long time,” she says.
Ms Chepkorir said even though the parents to the girls trusted her to perform the cut, she had no clue on the anatomy of the female reproductive system and therefore exposed the girls to life-threatening effects.
She recalled how business was a boom during school holidays where she could host at least 40 women for the ritual.
INFECTIONS
Some of them were married and were brought to her by their husbands who said they could not live with uncircumcised women.
“I didn’t host the girls in my home, but we had a secluded place in a bush next to my homestead where I performed the procedures,” she said, adding that she did her work under the cover of darkness to avoid being arrested.
Unlike many people who have carried out the practice, Ms Chepkorir is bold as she narrates the chilling moments of how some of the girls bled when the ‘operation’ went wrong.
“Sometimes, I would use a knife while other times I would use a razor blade,” she says.
Due to ignorance and lack of basic knowledge, most girls got infections from the procedures.
No medication was administered on them despite the sensitivity of the wound.
COMA
“I charged Sh200 for each. The money excited me. Interestingly, my husband was against the practice and we constantly fought over the matter,” she confesses.
Ms Chepkorir says she spent almost all the money on alcohol to remain “sane” because she was constantly feeling guilty of her actions.
“The procedure made me very nervous and I had to be under the influence of alcohol whenever I conducted it,” she recalls.
Her turning point, Ms Chepkorir says, was the day she performed the procedure on a pregnant girl.
“Her parents wanted to teach the 15-year-old a lesson and to tame her sexual appetite.
After performing the cut, she bled profusely and slid into a coma,” she says, adding that fearing for her life, she fled and spent weeks in a forest.
FRUSTRATED
Although the girl survived after receiving treatment at a local dispensary, the incident changed Ms Chepkorir’s life, forever, and she transformed into an advocate against the female cut.
Ms Chepkorir says she now understands the negative health effects of the cut and has been in the forefront in the fight against the practice.
Female genital cutting remains a challenge in Baringo and Nakuru counties. Ms Sally Wuod, a gender officer at Dandelion Africa NGO that fights ‘the cut’ in the region, says apprehending perpetrators is frustrated by their nomadic lifestyle.
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