memorable dispatch

By JOSHUA MASINDE
On a cold December night in 1999, I had the privilege of attending an initiation rite of the Sabaot of Mt. Elgon region in Western Kenya. My uncle, with whose family I was staying, took me there. The ghostly darkness and the dancing in the chilling breeze gave the night a strange aura. I had undergone my own rite of passage a year before. But this one appeared odd.
Having expected to see brave young men, enduring the chilly night, dancing, drumming and jingling their instruments so used in circumcision rites, a surprise lay in waiting. The unexpected sight of a file of young, energetic and frail girls, dancing vigorously, first in circles, then in one straight file away from the crowd, looked more like a scene of witches dancing away their evil machinations past midnight, a scene taken straight out of a Nollywood script.
But more was to come. This was a female circumcision ceremony. My mind conceived all possible graphic details of the act itself, as I kept wondering that alas, and indeed that my unfortunate sisters had at last, passed into adulthood through a very excruciating exercise that was to change their lives forever. The cut itself, blood trickling….The lurid gory details demanded pity for the victims.
A recent parliamentary report on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Kapchorwa and Nakapiripit districts in eastern Uganda has however signalled a timely intervention, which could offer respite to the girls and women who would have undergone this crude cultural rite of passage. The report has led to the passing by the Ugandan legislature of a new law outlawing and criminalising FGM. The law grants a maximum 10 year punishment for the perpetrators of the crude act, and life imprisonment for those who carry out aggravated FGM. Aggravated FGM is a case where the victim passes on after the cut, or is infected with HIV/AIDS or becomes disabled.
Prior to enacting the law, a motion criminalizing the act was moved by Dr. Chris Baryomunsi, Kinkizi east MP in Uganda. Dr. Baryomunsi later introduced a private bill in parliament countering FGM in Uganda in September for debate. It was unanimously enacted into law on December 10.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines female genital mutilation (FGM) as “the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs whether for cultural or other non-therapeutic reasons.
FGM is also practiced in other parts of the world and Amnesty International estimates over 130 million women worldwide have been victims. It is estimated that 92 million of Africa’s women have been victims with over 3 million cases carried out annually on the African continent. In Uganda, the Sabiny of Kapchorwa, Bukwo, Bugiri and Nakapiripirit districts in the eastern frontier have indigenous tribes that vigorously practice FGM, according to the parliamentary report. The rite is performed bi-annually each year.
There are about four ways in which FGM is executed: “Sunna” circumcision is the removal of the prepuce and/or the tip of the clitoris; Clitoridectomy, or excision, which is the removal of the entire clitoris and adjacent labia; Infibulation (pharaonic circumcision), removal of the clitoris and entire labia and then joining the scraped sides of the vulva across the vagina using thorns or catgut, leaving only a small opening for passage of urine and menstrual blood.
FGM is generally performed in unsanitary conditions with unclean sharp instruments, such as pieces of glass, stones, knives, or razor blades. A single instrument is often used on many girls and/or women without cleaning, leading to the transmission of various viruses, such as HIV/AIDS.
While there are no benefits associated with FGM, the procedure is characterised with health complications like cruelty of the procedure, urine retention which is painful, short term haemorrhage, which can lead to death. It can also engender infertility, vulva abscess, clitoral cysts, labia adherences, difficulties in menstruation, fistula, disability and increased risks of HIV/AIDS infections.
In the parliamentary report, Mr Peter Kamuron, a human rights activist, opines that; “Once a girl is cut, she is cut off from enjoying her reproductive health and rights and continuing with education, and from any hope for employment and or future economic survival.”
But there are now initiatives such as the Reproductive Educative and Community Health (REACH) started in 1996 in Kapchorwa, which have been at the forefront in helping to discourage or stop FGM. Using education as its primary tool in eliminating FGM, REACH formed the Sabiny Elders Association to reach people. The targeted communities later decided on their own to stop the practice. The Kapchorwa district has seen a 36 per cent decrease in FGM.