Communities look on as FGM continues unabated

Last month (February 6, 2017), Uganda joined the rest of Africa in observing the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation.

The UN sponsored awareness day that takes place on February 6 each year since its inception in 2003. However despite all efforts to wipe out the vice, it all seems like rhetoric which stays on paper.

According to World Health Organisation, about 92 million girls aged 10 and above have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM).

World Health Organisation decrees that female genital mutilation (FGM) is a violation of human rights and despite the WHO's commitment to eliminate FGM within a generation, the practice is still rampant.

The cultural ritual is practiced in eastern Uganda among three tribes; the Pokot, Sabiny and Tepeth, mainly in the districts of Kapchorwa,

Kween and Bukwo although it has spread to some other areas in Buganda, namely Kayunga and Mukono Districts where some of these people have since migrated.

Proscovia Chelangat, a 23 year old who was circumcised against her will faces a lot of problems. Like anticipated, she lost all desire for sex and feels useless.  Although she has a child, she is detached from him and feels like an object. 

"I no longer enjoy sex.  Whenever my husband from an arranged marriage forces himself on me, it is sore and painful in the scar area," she says.

She reveals that the practice is reminiscent of cattle being slaughtered at an abattoir. Girls are forced to lie down and are treated like cows at a slaughter house. Heads are pressed hard on the ground and mouths are gagged before their clitoris is sliced with blunt knives.

She reveals that they have since tried to alert Police so as to save the younger ones, sensitize the community about the dangers to little avail.

Chelangat reveals that some victims find it hard to report their relatives or next of kin who are hard bent on continuing with the practice.

Female children below 10 are being brought up to accept FGM which can only increase on the psychological traumatisation.