Rural communities in Kenya are reportedly taking advantage of school closures due to the coronavirus to perform female genital mutilation (FGM), Reuters reported on Tuesday.
In Kenya, 21 percent of women and girls, aged 15-49, have undergone FGM, according to United Nations data. The procedure requires the partial or total removal of the female genitalia and can cause grave health problems for the entirety of a girl’s lifetime and death.
In 2011, Kenya criminalized FGM with a punishment of three years imprisonment and a $2,000 fine. Nonetheless, Kenyans continue to perform the barbaric procedure; some communities erroneously view the gruesome ritual as necessary for girls’ social acceptance and marriage prospects.
On April 6, Kenya’s president placed some parts of the country on lockdown, limiting people’s movements to curb the spread of the Chinese coronavirus. On March 27, Kenya had enacted a dusk-to-dawn curfew. With the new restrictions on movement, young people are confined to their homes more than usual. In Kenya’s northern Samburu county, schools were closed early on March 16 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, reports of FGM have increased in this county.
In an interview with Reuters published on Tuesday, Bernadette Loloju, chief executive of the semiautonomous government agency Anti-FGM Board, said she had received several reports that girls – specifically girls kept home from school – had been forced to undergo FGM in Samburu.
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