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Escaping the knife with honour

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Published on Saturday, 07 July 2007 06:28

In Nyairicha Village, Nyamira, nine-year-old Ruth Nyanumba was worried when the December holidays begun last year. There was no talk from her parents about her initiation. In school, some of the girls who were circumcised would not play with her because she is egesagane (uncircumcised) to them: unfit to mingle with 'adults'.
Many girls in her village were circumcised. Her mother, Rebecca Gesare, last December heeded her daughter's entreaties to be circumcised and invited a nurse to 'cut' her at night as soon as schools closed.
She was in seclusion for about six weeks and had leather shoes and new dresses bought for her when she graduated. She was excited, for her desire to play with her classmates on equal terms without fear of being shunned had been granted.

In Kisii District, one evening, after schools closed, 10-year-old Judy Moraa told her father that she had a very important issue to discuss with him."Dad, you see I have done very well in class and I am going to Standard Five next year. I have been an obedient girl but there is one thing I really want. I would like you to give an okay so that I can be circumcised this December."

Daniel Makori knew that his daughter always made her requests through her mother. This had to be very important to her. But why would she make such a request when Makori, who works in Nakuru, had assumed that girls were no longer being circumcised?

"It is a lie dad. Many girls in my class are circumcised and the few who were not are having it done this holiday," said Moraa. She, too, was being discriminated against by girls who were already initiated.

In Ogembo, Gucha District, Mary Bosibori's parents had decided not to circumcise her. When she reached 11, she could not stand the mockery from her classmates and made up her mind to go for circumcision with or without her parents' consent.

As soon as the December holidays began, she went to her maternal grandmother, Martha Nyangweso, and cried about her situation. Without hesitation, Nyangweso put her through the rite.

Not so long ago, a girl who had not undergone the initiation rites was considered an outcast in the community. Mzee Sylvester Morang'a says such women were never married. In 1986, a teacher's daughter who was not circumcised had dowry returned after the groom's family discovered that she had not been cut.

"When cows are returned to your home, it is an abomination. It is a disgrace to yourself, your parents and the clan in general. The woman was later married to a non-Kisii but the family is still stigmatised. The younger daughters had to be circumcised later," he adds.

Former Kisii Mayor Claire Omanga says that because of the significance attached to the rite, some enlightened parents lie that their daughters have undergone the rite to avoid being laughed at.

"A colleague initiated his daughter, although he and his wife are quite informed on its futility. They said they didn't want to be the laughing stock of the village!" she adds.

And so the rite thrives.