Sunday, September 23, 2012

THE LAW IS ALIVE YET YOUNG GIRLS CONTINUE TO BLEED

   Girls this size in Pokot &Tepeth are already booked for marriage
She is called Christine. Her real name is Naupe. The 13 year old girl is in painful hiding from two of her people’s most cheeky cultural practices. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and forceful early marriage for the girl child are the most disturbing cultural order for Pokot and Tepeth girls in Uganda and Kenya.
The season for FGM is here. It is practiced during harvest time when food is available to keep victims indoors for weeks or months after their ‘sweet aerials’ are cut off. Then immediately, wealthy men – no matter the age, men with animals can ferry these disabled children off to their dark sleeping chambers; for sex, sex that should ‘according to elders’ taste sweet to only one side – not to the feminine, -only for the masculine whose pistons are at large.
This is the story of Christine Naupe. Poor Naupe crossed the border about a month ago after several battles with her parents deep in Nasal –North Pokot district of Kenya. “I was already forced into marrying a very old man who offered goats and cattle to my parents, but the man’s condition made me think of dying instead”. The old man demanded of Naupe to go through ‘the women stabilising’ initiation process –FGM.
“I could not bear the pain of being cut because last year three girls died after over-bleeding caused by the mutilation and about 15 girls in our neighbourhoods disappeared due to fear of the practice” Naupe told this blog. Even after bargaining for the price of the girl and convincing the prey into this nasty cross-generational bondage, the old man in question continued to ask for more.
Naupe said “I was already set to stay with him because my parents convinced me that the wealth accrued would help our family. The only thing that made me jump off is the knife; old men believe that when a girl is not chopped, she can still move out with other men”.
Naupe trekked, crossed the border from Kenya into Amudat district of Uganda where some of her family relations exist. “I woke up, got out of the house at about past-midnight and started to my relatives in Amudat.”
By 10: am of a new day – a Saturday, the girl was at her aunt’s home in Amudat and by 6:00pm same day, the boys from Kenya following- hunting for her, also touched the same soil, but; “I was inside when they arrived and started asking for me. My aunt protected, told them she didn’t see me and as they proceeded to another relative’s home, I planned another journey that took me to Loroo and finally to here, to Tapac.”
As we curse, Naupe is currently trying to forge life eating free posho and beans –sharing with Tepeth pupils at Tapac Primary school. The catholic mission in Tapac learnt of her plight and the long journey she cleared before securing for her shelter in this school. Naupe also reported that she was in Primary two before her breasts developed eyes. With only one pair of clothing, no shoes –sandals, no beddings, no sanitary things –basin, soap... she still feels better while here –away from home.
Naupe is not alone; hundreds of Pokot and Tepeth girls go through this shameful and painful experience year in and out. According to media reports, last year alone 169 girls were cut. More 317 girls were abused in the year 2010 and a shocking 500 others were dissected in 2009. Although the percentage is promisingly coming down, more effort is really needed to hit the last nail on the FGM coffin.
Human rights activists rightly argue that the practice disgustingly infringes on the rights of women as it causes terrifying corporal and emotional injuries on them. Doctors also say a woman who has been cut is at high risk of developing gynaecological problems which might cause terrible difficulties during child birth. However, very little is directly being done by our governments to ensure its total elimination.  
Uganda enacted the FGM law in 2009. It is now up to the people and their leaders to ensure that the effort to fight the monkey business is taken seriously. For instance in July last year, 36 community leaders composed of kraal heads, religious bosses and LCs of Pokot Sub region –Amudat district signed a declaration to advocate against the practice. Such pronouncements should be encouraged and they must be walked and not merely written or talked.
 

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