The Government has intensified the fight against FGM across the Country as it keeps good its threat to eradicate the vice by 2022.
A woman said to be a practitioner of the outlawed cultural practice was arrested in Tharaka constituency alongside three accomplices.
The Tharaka Nithi County Commissioner Ms. Beverly Opwora said a female circumciser and three other people were arrested and the victims taken for medical attention at the Chuka County Referral Hospital.
“The woman who performed FGM on the girls and three accomplices are in police custody awaiting prosecution. The medical practitioners attending to the victims will be crucial in giving medical evidence over the illegal practice,” She said.
Ms. Opwora reminded national government officers especially chiefs and their assistants to enforce the law banning FGM warning those encouraging the practice that they will be prosecuted.
“If FGM continues to be practiced within your jurisdiction, then you are totally failing in your cardinal responsibility and you will be treated as the first suspect and be prosecuted among other accomplices,” she emphasized.
The senior administrator said retrogressive cultural practice is common during the December holiday season especially in Tharaka North and South Sub-counties and called on all parents to be very vigilant over the whereabouts of their daughters.
“It came out clearly that, it’s a blame game between men and women and to counter this we have engaged families to ensure we have a constructive dialogue on the root cause of the cultural practice,” She said.
She hailed the Tharaka Women Welfare Programme and other stakeholders who have pitched camp in the county to fight FGM and urged parents to support such initiatives by advising their daughters to reject FGM that is mainly secretly undertaken during August and December holidays.
Through the initiative of the Tharaka Women Welfare Programme, many girls from Tharaka-North and Tharaka South sub counties have opted to undergo an alternative rite of passage that multiplies their chances of pursuing education and be better prepared to face life challenges rather than get married off at an early age.
