FGM| KENYA | UGANDA | BORDER 

Six girls from Amudat district have been intercepted in Kenya's North Pokot district as they prepared to undergo Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), often treated as a ritual to womanhood. The girls aged 9-13 were intercepted by the Police after a tip-off by concerned residents of Amakuriat, about 30km inside Kenya.

The girls are being held at Amakuriat Police Station as they fi nd means of returning them to Uganda before re-union with their parents.

The acting chief of Lokitanyala, North Pokot district, Peter Lokorilang Alany, said the girls were in Woyakol and Lomureibul villages in Sasak and Amakuriat sub-locations respectively.

Alany said after a tip-off from an elder in Katuri village on an intended initiation, they found the girls in their grandmother's house.

"We found each of them with a packet of new razor blades," he said. Alany said the girls later acknowledged coming from Uganda, Amudat district in Namosing village.

"They also accepted having entered Kenya in search of being initiated into adulthood," he said.

The Amudat Resident District Commissioner, John Robert Adiama, thanked the Kenyan leaders for the efforts in fighting FGM.

He said the Pokot still value FGM, so it may take a while to fi ght the vice but the Government is on the ground and enacted a law in 2010 to that effect.

"The girls want to undergo FGM because they are under pressure of social isolation," Adiama said.

The Moroto district FGM focal person, King Loru, said following frequent discussions with their Kenyan counterparts, they are making progress. He said this was the second time Kenyan offi cials were arresting girls about to undergo FGM and forced marriages.

However, Loru said there was a need to strengthen cross-border dialogue that had stopped because of COVID-19.

The programme officer at the centre for domestic violence and prevention, Hellen Angolere, urged activists to continue with the fight against FGM. She advised the team to adhere to the guidelines issued by the health ministry about COVID-19.

Angolere, however, condemned all the forms of violence, saying the acts are punishable by law. She said FGM has severe health consequences to the lives of women and girls. FGM has been common in Bukwo, Kween, Amudat and Kapchorwa districts.

It can result in complications during child birth, anaemia, urinary incontinence, painful sexual intercourse, sexual dysfunction and increases the risk of acquiring HIV.

Additional reporting by Charlse Etukuri