Creaw Portal

Thursday December 4, 2008 / The Standard

In efforts to avoid undergoing FGM, the girls in Kuria have sought refuge in churches and hospitals.

BY NICK OLUOCH and LEONARD KORIR

More than 300 girls have sought refuge at different churches after flee­ing from traditional circumcisers in Kuria District.

At the same time, police in Trans Mara District rescued two girls who had been tied to their beds to prevent them from escaping the knife.

Some 218 girls aged between 10 and 15 are holed up at Gekonge Ma­ranatha Church in Kuria West District where they have been staying for the last one week.

Another 100 are in Komotobo Mis­sion Hospital in Kuria East District.

Senior Government officials have confirmed the presence of the girls in the hide-outs and were providing them with security as they prepared to contact their parents.

Speaking to The Standard in Kuria, Mrs Beatrice Robi, a women's leader and gender activist, described the in­cident as an embarrassment to the Kuria community and a human rights violation.

IRREVERSIBLE EFFECTS

She cautioned parents against forcing daughters into the rite, saying its effects were irreversible. The girls are mostly drawn from Masaba, Mabera and Kehancha divisions.

Robi appealed to other girls to seek refuge at the centers until the season

ends. Kuria East DC Hamman Msham­bi said the girls at Komotobo Mission Hospital were safe.

Speaking to The Standard on the phone, the DC said efforts had been made to provide security for the girls and make sure they did not run away. He, however, said it was becom­ing impossible to interrogate the girls for fear they would run away.

"We do not want to put pressure on the girls," he said, adding that this was making it impossible to trace their parents.

In-Trans Mara District, police rescued two girls who were to be circum­cised along with their brother.

In a dramatic move, the police dis­rupted a traditional ceremony at Po­roko village, where the under-age girls were being prepared for the rite.

The girls, aged 15 and 17, narrated how they were roughed up by their mother, herself a police inspector in Nairobi, when they resisted the knife.

EAC to streamline states'