Focused inquiry on the history and origin of female genital mutilation (FGM) yields almost nothing. There is no solid reason FGM was introduced and continues to be practised today.

All efforts to justify this as a cultural, religious, scientific, medical, or social practice are not only laughable but must be discouraged ethically, morally, legally, and scientifically through strict policy-backed consequences. 

I had the opportunity to watch an “FGM surgery” video clip of a young girl undergoing untold suffering at the hands of adults who seemed not to care about the child’s pain.

It left me vile, uneasy, and literally shaken as to why mature women had to take a child through such a horrific operation.

It remains to me a warped mental nihilism to imagine taking someone through unnecessary pain to save her from becoming a social misfit. 

The hallowed religious books have not sanctioned FGM, and those who try to use religious doctrines to justify it are imps, as guilty as the moral ills they purport to challenge.

God created man and nature in all fullness. Whoever feels that scraping off part of that creation is questioning God’s wisdom in putting man and woman in particular anatomical formulae. As they say, kazi ya mungu haina makosa (God’s craft is flawless). 

Biologically, every part of the human anatomy serves a specific and precise function. Unless a certain body part threatens human life, there should be no reason to amputate or modify that organ.

Moreover, any medical operation involving human beings must be backed by scientific research, not muffled fancies that doing so fixes anything. 

It is disheartening that FGM operations are carried out by “cutters” who have no medical background and work in dirty environments that pose health risks to children.

These cutters use crude instruments mainly modified from recycled razor blades, old iron sheets, or poorly processed iron fragments. Many young girls who undergo this regrettable passage eventually die due to haemorrhage or serious infections as wounds turn septic. 

According to a 2003 study published in Nature’s Scientific Reports, at least 44,000 girls in Africa die due to FGM complications.

The Orchid Project reports that every 12 minutes, a girl dies as a direct result of FGM. That’s five girls per hour, 120 per day, 44,320 every year.

These are not just numbers but real lives, dreams, and futures lost to a practice without a medical purpose. This closely rivals deaths from armed combat, which number about 48,000. 

To make FGM sound trendy, merchants of this vice sugarcoat their false narrative with lies that females who undergo the cut are more socially upright, while those who don’t are social misfits.

This narrative has been thrust into the social psyche, especially young girls’ minds, to the extent that some sneak to cutters’ dens for this disgraceful act. 

The Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act, 2011, is the main Kenyan law aimed at eradicating FGM. It criminalises the practice and related activities, stating that violations can result in imprisonment for a minimum of three years and a fine of at least Ksh200,000.

This is too lenient. The penalty for grievous harm, according to the Penal Code, is life imprisonment, making three years too low to discourage cutters from continuing this practice. 

The writer is an Assistant Director at the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, he writes in his personal capacity