Kenya banned Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in 2011, but few expected the practice would then migrate to backroom clinics and private homes. In Kisii county, 300 kilometres (180 miles) west of Nairobi, more than 80-percent of FGM procedures are now carried out by health workers, according to government data. Medicalised FGM as it is known is defended by practitioners and communities alike as a "safe" way to preserve the custom, despite risks to the victim's physical, psychological and sexual health.
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00:00 [singing]
00:18 Why me mama? Why me daddy? Why me mama?
00:25 [singing]
00:31 So our girls are being cut when they are very young.
00:34 And they are being cut, I want to say medical personnel.
00:38 In whatever situation or whatever, maybe they are medical quirks,
00:42 but the word is medicalized.
00:45 They are taking place in hospitals,
00:47 where these medical personnel are coming to their homes.
00:50 And they are doing it to very young girls.
00:52 So the assumption is that this very young girl, she will heal fast
00:55 and be able to continue with her school.
00:58 [singing]
01:07 [children playing]
01:11 [speaking in foreign language]
01:18 Why me daddy? Why me my people?
01:22 People are feeling like we are going to the western side so much,
01:26 but there are some things that are good as Africans.
01:30 For example, apart from the cut, there were some teachings.
01:34 We can still have those teachings to our girls,
01:37 having something we call alternative right of passage.
01:40 But at the end of the day, you've not cut that girl,
01:42 but you've maintained your culture, maybe how you want this girl to behave.
01:45 [speaking in foreign language]
01:57 [speaking in foreign language]
02:26 I'm glad the government banned FGM,
02:30 because in some communities it was so extreme
02:33 that it would affect ladies during delivery.
02:37 And as a midwife, I came across a few of them.
02:40 So I'm delivering some of them,
02:43 because it causes scarring, scarring of the genital area.
02:49 And sometimes others could not only cut the clitoris,
02:53 but they would also cut the minoras and the majoras,
02:57 and that's obliterating the birth canal.
03:01 [speaking in foreign language]
03:19 [BLANK_AUDIO]