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Nurses Abetting Female Circumcision

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Published on Saturday, 02 June 2007 06:48

Nurses in public hospitals are taking advantage of a ban on female circumcision to assist those who choose to undergo the rite, it was claimed yesterday. The Nyamira District Commissioner, Mr Jamleck Baruga, said he had received reports that nurses were involved in the outlawed practice. He said the nurses charged between Sh1,500 per person, up from Sh200 previously.

"We risk being arrested so they have to pay us properly so that we talk to the police or chiefs," a nurse at a district hospital is reported saying. Baruga instructed the Nyamira medical officer of health, Dr Wilfred Basweti, to crack down on the nurses. Chiefs and police officers are also under instructions to arrest parents forcing their daughters to be circumcised. A crusader against female circumcision, Mr Daniel Momanyi, said it had become difficult to bring to book perpetrators of the practice as festivities that accompanied the ritual had been discarded. It is, however, still rampant among the Kisii despite heightened campaigns.

A recent survey places the prevalence rate at 97 per cent for girls aged between 8-12 years in the three districts of Nyamira, Kisii and Gucha.Unlike in other communities, girls here voluntarily seek to undergo it "due to their mother's influence", the report says.