A form two girl who was about to undergo Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Naira Sirasa, Narok county, has been rescued by detectives based at the Child Protection Unit.
The minor who studies at an established girl’s high school in Nakuru, learnt of the plan by her parents to force her to undergo the inhuman procedure, on Thursday, August 4, 2022.
And through a phone call, she immediately alerted her school head girl who was with her parents in Thindigua, Kiambu county, about the evil plans hatched by her parents.
“Immediately, the head girl called our detectives through the #FichuakwaDCI anonymous hotline 0800 722 203 and a team was dispatched to Narok, for the minor’s rescue,” DCI said in a statement.
“The girl is now safely in our hands as detectives secure a safe house to accommodate her for the time being,” it added.
Meanwhile, the form two girl’s parents have since been arrested and are currently in police custody, assisting detectives with investigations.
“We thank the head girl of the school who went beyond the call of her duty, by reaching out to our officers to rescue her schoolmate from the retrogressive act,” noted the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
FGM in Kenya
Female Genital Mutilation, or FGM, is internationally recognized as a violation of human rights.
However, 2021 statistics from Unicef indicate that over 200 million girls worldwide are at risk of undergoing this harmful practice every year, many of them under the age of 15.
In Kenya, around 4 million, or one in five, women and girls have been subjected to FGM.
But in some communities, according to Unicef, this rises as high as 94 per cent.
Although overall these numbers have declined over recent years, they remain much too high.
