Female Genital Cutting among the Somali of Kenya and Management of its Complications (2005)
This study is a Descriptive research regarding II,III FGM/C with the following characteristics:
Author(s): Guyo W. Jaldesa,Ian Askew,Carolyne Njue and Monica Wanjiru
FGM/C Type(s): II,III
Health area of focus: Gynaecological.
Objective: 1. To document the reasons currently used by the Somali community to justify continuation of FGC.
2. To document Somalis’ perceptions of women’s and children’s rights in relation to bodily integrity,gender relations,and sexuality.
3. To identify key actors who influence the decision to sustain the practice at the community level.
4. To understand how behavioural norms are sustained generally within the Somali community.
5. To identify those within the community who have openly abandoned the practice and understand their motivation to do so and how the decision was taken.
6. To identify community-based organizations or individuals with which partnerships could be established to support community-based FGC abandonment interventions.
7. To assess whether Somalis living in Nairobi have different beliefs,attitudes and behaviours concerning FGC than those living in North Eastern Province.
8. To document the readiness of selected clinics and their staff to offer essential and emergency obstetric care,and to manage gynaecological complications associated with infibulation.
9. To document the role,if any,of medical staff in carrying out infibulation and de-infibulation.
Study Population: Somali community members,Community and religious leaders,recently married and unmarried men and women,health providers,antenatal clients who had been cut
Findings: The study confirmed that FGC is a deeply rooted and widely supported cultural practice. Several closely related reasons are used to sustain the practice: religious obligation,family honour,and virginity as a prerequisite for marriage; an aesthetic preference for infibulated genitalia was also mentioned. However,FGC plays no role as a rite of passage. Underlying these reasons were the use of infibulation to enforce the cultural value of sexual purity in females. The study also found that the health sector was ill equipped to serve women who have been cut,particularly infibulated pregnant women and could be associated with an overall weakness in the availability and quality of safe motherhood services in North Eastern Province. In addition,and especially in Nairobi,health workers were increasingly being approached to perform infibulations and re-infibulations.
Geographical coverage
Region(s):Eastern Africa
Country(ies):Kenya