WUNRN
By Rachel Muthoni -
In a bid to retain culture and due to the greed of men who profit
by marrying off their daughters, some communities in
Section 14 of The Children’s Act of 2001 in
Eunice Tenges' second born daughter milks a goat. The drea locks in her hair
indicate she is ready for FGM and marriage. Photograph by Rachel Muthoni.
While some people reason that
FGM is part of their culture, similar to paying dowry or naming children after
relatives, others aim at increasing their wealth. The latter is predominant
among pastoral communities where the number of animals a man has determines his
wealth and wins him respect, and girls are married off in exchange for camels,
cattle, and goats. The cut symbolizes a woman’s initiation to adulthood, and in
some communities men do not agree to marry girls who have not undergone FGM.
Approximately 28 percent of
women in
But one woman in Rift Valley has defied all odds and said “no” to this
deep-rooted cultural practice.
When death took away her husband ten years ago, Eunice Tenges did
not mourn much. While she was sad to have lost the family’s sole breadwinner in
a cattle rustling conflict between the Pokot and Turkana communities, Tenges,
age 50, knew her husband’s death brought the opportunity to fight Female
Genital Mutilation.
During my two-day stay in Kokwatoto in East Pokot, Northern Kenya, Tenges is
the only woman I found who had refused to cut her daughters. I was visiting
Kokwatoto to witness the building of an eye clinic and it was out of curiosity
that I asked a man, who only gave me his name as David, if there was such a
woman as Tenges.
Eunice Tenges makes a living
brewing a an illegal liquor.
“She
brews chang’aa (illicit brew) and is hated by everyone,” David told me.
Having been born in Nyeri, Central province, I was unfamiliar with FGM. The
only time I heard about FGM was from my late grandmother, who explained to me
that she did not go to school and was instead circumcised.
It was not until I moved to Rift Valley six years ago that I came face-to-face
with the practice. In Rift Valley I found women who confessed to having
undergone FGM, and witnessed children forced into marriage after the procedure.
Tenges had undergone FGM as a 13 year-old girl – the same age at which she was
forced to marry a man 20 years older than her. “I had wanted to continue with
my education, but only dropped off at class three to get the cut and later be
married off,” she tells me.
Her efforts to beg her father not to marry her off bore no fruits. He told her
she was a grown-up woman, having gone through the cut, and that he needed to
increase his livestock.
“He was paid five camels, ten cows, and 15 goats as dowry. Then I was told to
go with the old man, whom I had to learn to love,” says Tenges.
Culture among the Pokot community dictates that women must be submissive. It is
men in the Pokot community who dictate how their homes are run. Elders,
comprising of old men, dictate the running of the community. While Tenges had
long prayed that her daughters would somehow escape the cut and pursue an
education, she had never raised the issue before her late husband, fearing that
he would get agitated, beat her up, or send her back to her parents.
When he died, she comforted herself that although it was a loss to her family,
it was a great achievement for her four daughters.
After she buried her husband, Tenges’ elder brother took away her eldest
daughter claiming that he would put her through primary education. “I was
excited by the offer. Having been widowed, I felt my brother was lifting off
the burden of taking my child to school,” says the mother of ten.
Eunice Tenges and some of her children. Photograph by Rachel Kibui.
Two
years later, her daughter visited home with long, unkempt hair resembling
dreadlocks. Wearing many traditional ornaments on her neck and a goat skin
round her shoulders, she was the image of a typical Pokot girl ready for
marriage. If a man admires her, he goes to the parent’s home and proposes. The
man who is able to pay the highest number of livestock is given first priority,
regardless of what the girl wants or the couple’s age difference.
“I shaved off her hair, and ordered her to remove the ornaments and the goat
skin. She would not undergo FGM,” says Tenges. “She would go to school.”
Tenges was rejected by her three brothers, who reminded her that she was stupid
to have refused to marry off her daughter when the dowry would have made her
rich (Had she given in, her brothers would negotiate the bride price, receive
the lion’s share, and give the remainder to Tenges). Her stand also made her
neighbours and other relatives reject her.
When Tenges refused to let go of her first-born daughter, a brother-in-law came
for her second girl.
“He pretended to be good, saying he would help me take her to school, and that
he would make sure she does not undergo FGM,” says Tenges. But when she went to
visit her, Tenges noticed that she too had grown the dreadlock-like hair.
“I sensed danger and took my daughter away,” says Tenges.
FGM is a deep-rooted culture among most pastoral communities in
I wish the government and more NGOs would intensify their campaigns against
FGM. Campaigns would empower women and show them that they have a right to be
heard on what their children should or should not undergo. This way, we would
have more women like Tenges, who fearlessly stand up for their children and
tell their husbands that women need to be educated.
If women from regions such as Pokot are not empowered, then the practice of FGM
may unfortunately continue in