The exact number of girls and women worldwide who have undergone FGC remains unknown, but the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that at least 200 million individuals alive today have been cut in 31 countries across the world. UNICEF data show that the practice is nearly universal in some countries, while it affects only a small fraction of girls in others.The ripple effects of the pandemic are causing a resurgence in female circumcision.
A young mother stands with her children outside a small stall in a village near Laisamis, Kenya. (Photo by Will Swanson for VICE World News)
A YOUNG RENDILLE MORAN SITS IN A SHUTTERED SCHOOL BUILDING NEAR THE TOWN OF LAISAMIS IN KENYA. YOUNG MEN BROKE THE WINDOWS OF THE SCHOOL AND HAVE BEEN LIVING IN THE CLASSROOMS SINCE THE SCHOOL WAS CLOSED DUE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. (Photo by Will Swanson for VICE World News)
The Kenyan government has cautiously re-opened schools like Marsabit’s Mercy Primary School to ensure that students do not fall too far behind. In the scorching heat of the dirt school yard, clusters of 13- and 14-year-old boys and girls gathered in groups, chatting animatedly during recess.With schools closed since March 2020 due to the pandemic, Kenyan girls like Tracy have been at home for months.
A pupil at school in Laisamis, Kenya. (Photo by Will Swanson for VICE World News)
Edward Lekapana, left, teaches at a school in Laisamis, Kenya. “Some come back. They don’t concentrate the way they were concentrating before. There are some who are married off. Those who are do not return to school after they're married,” he said. (Photo by Will Swanson for VICE World News)
Vicky, an eighteen-year-old girl from Laisamis, experienced negative side effects from FGC when she was cut as a small child more than ten years ago. (Photo by Will Swanson for VICE World News)
“I just ran away to avoid seeing her being circumcised because it is a painful process. She started vomiting and bleeding a lot. After that, she felt weak,” her mother, who agreed to speak anonymously, told VICE World News. Vicky’s mother explained that as her daughter’s school performance dropped and her personality changed, she worried for her future.“She cut it the second, third, even fourth time. It was so painful, I kept crying throughout, asking why this was happening to me.”
Vicky, 18, with her sister at their family home in Laisamis, Kenya. (Photo by Will Swanson for VICE World News)
On a sunny morning in Tracy’s village, a group of male elders, between 70 and 90 years old, squatted in age-defying positions beneath the shade of a tree as they chewed tobacco and discussed community news. The topic of FGC came up, and the elders said that they had heard from government and aid workers about the detriments of FGC. “We listened with open ears,” they told VICE World News. They had gathered, along with elders from Rendille communities across northern Kenya, to discuss possible alternative rites of passage that could serve as substitutes for FGC. But the risk of replacing a tried-and-tested tradition with an unknown was too great, they decided.Even if they do not want to undergo the cut, many will in order to uphold tradition, please their families and secure good marriages.
The Rendille town of Merille in Kenya. (Photo by Will Swanson for VICE World News)
CHRISTINE LEMOWONAPI, A FORMER RENDILLE CIRCUMCISER, SITS INSIDE HER HOME IN MERILLE, KENYA. SHE HAS LOST HER SOURCE OF INCOME SINCE THE GOVERNMENT OUTLAWED THE PRACTICE. (PHOTO BY WILL SWANSON FOR VICE WORLD NEWS)
Christine Lemowonapi, a former Rendille circumciser, holds a tool she once used to perform FGC at her home in Merille, Kenya. (Photo by Will Swanson for VICE World News)
“One of our major challenges is most cases are not reported to us,” said Mbatian Kantai, the Sub County Police Commander of Marsabit South. “The communities seem closed up. They still value that culture. Because it’s part of the community's culture, anyone who [works] to advocate against FGM is somehow isolated.” Even so, Kantai said the police have had some success in arresting individuals performing circumcision. “We have arrested the circumcisers, mostly they’re women,” he explained. “We have taken them to court, and they have been punished.”But Augustine Super, a government appointed chief for the area, said the cases being prosecuted are still too few. He pointed to corruption amongst police officers and politicians as a key reason why many cases do not result in convictions, a complaint echoed by others during this report. “Once we prosecute some cases, they're being interfered politically,” Super said. “As we arrest people, some people are interfering with the cases in the police line. There's some corruption which is going on, which is not allowed.”Kantai disagreed: “So far, I've not received any complaint against police on corruption. And I, being the police chief, I totally discourage [this],” he said. “I think the best people to ask if the police are corrupt is our consumers, our customers. They’ll be able to tell you.”Its illegal status, and increasing opposition to the practice, has driven it underground.
Njambi, whose dissertation relays her personal fight to choose to be circumcised, initially against her parents’ wishes, presents a different view of the practice to readers, one that is often entirely omitted in current writings and analysis about FGC. “My sadness over my father’s refusal to grant me permission to get circumcised was too much to bear,” she wrote. “And I was now more than ever determined to find out exactly what that experience would be like, and no one was going to stand in my way—not even my Christian parents.”“The colonial images that infuse the West’s understandings of the practices of female circumcision in general, as well as the anti-FGM discourse itself, are not new.”
Traders and locals sit outside their stores in the Rendille town of Merille in Kenya. (Photo by Will Swanson for VICE World News)
Susie has been sent for a sleepover to her cousin’s house. In the morning, she recognized the woman approaching the front door as a local circumciser. “When I saw her, I just ran,” said Susie. “I didn’t bother taking anything. I ran without shoes.” Susie fled to her coach Choya’s home, knowing she was a local anti-FGC activist. Choya became an advocate at the age of 13 after watching her neighbor’s circumcision. “She was bleeding a lot,” said Choya, who watched her friend go to the hospital because of the procedure. “She’s my close friend. So, from that moment, I didn't want to see any girl going through that thing.”“When I saw her, I just ran,” said Susie. “I didn’t bother taking anything. I ran without shoes.”
Dorcas Choya sits with Susie on her couch, who fled her home when her parents brought a circumciser to cut her. “When I saw her I just ran,” said Susie. “I didn’t bother taking anything. I ran without shoes." (Photo by Will Swanson for VICE World News)