The government and its partners in the programme should consider rolling it out to cover more victims in communities where the FGM prevalence is as high as 95 per cent.
The government-backed restorative surgery programme for victims of female genital mutilation (FGM) offers them much more than a chance to heal the physical scars of the outdated cultural practice.
Beneficiaries will also be at a lower risk of birth complications and social stigma related to FGM.
The government and its partners in the programme – US-based Clitoraid International and Garana, a local non-governmental organisation – should consider rolling it out to cover more victims in communities where the FGM prevalence is as high as 95 per cent.
However, everyone involved in the battle against FGM must be alive to the reality that the war will ultimately be won not by curative measures, like the restorative surgeries, but by getting the communities that still practise it to discard it.
Public awareness campaigns, legislation banning it and the formation of a statutory body to lead the fight have helped reduce cases, and allowed more girls to avoid forced marriages and access education. Yet the fact that so many Kenyan girls and women are still in danger of being circumcised suggests a weakness in these strategies. It is high time the battle more effective.
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