Hearing girl’s voices in northern Kenya
By Lucy Murunga, Communicator, World Vision Kenya
As the African continent marked the Day of the African Child last summer, I was privileged to join thousands of children from northern Kenya in their celebrations.
Children were the main participants; they carried banners, sang songs, and presented poems and letters to community leaders. Their message? It is the society’s collective responsibility to eliminate harmful cultural and social practices.
Some of these harmful cultural practices, I learnt, are widespread, despite laws banning them. To mention a few: child marriage, Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C), beading and ‘moranism’(a traditional practice where boys as young as 14 are sent to survive in the bush on their own), are all unfortunately common.
One of the first speakers of the day was 16-year-old, Faustina, the deputy governor for the local children’s parliament. The crowd was in anticipation and so was I.
“The girl child is an endangered species. A girl once born is targeted for FGM and immediately after, early marriage to older men and she has no say in anything,” she said.
“The girl child is only viewed as property and a source of income for the family.”
She put the microphone down to take her seat. There was a sudden silence in the atmosphere.
Then stood another girl, 16-year-old Leterewa. She read a poem she’d written, titled ‘A cry for help.’
She began, “I cry in every direction, to look for help, when that terrific day arrives, I get scared, when my body becomes numb, I get confused, when that sharp razor blade lands on me! When my body trembles because of pain; when I scream and faint; when my tiny body bleeds in volumes; when women say I am a coward! All because of female genital mutilation.”
“I cry in every direction, to look for help; when my body is still in pain; when that terrible wound is still bleeding; when I still need care and attention; when am still weak and vulnerable that old man takes me away; all because of early and forced marriage. Oh my! Am left crying help! Help! That I doubt it will ever heal me from the social, emotional and psychological torture.”
As Leterewa concluded the poem, there was another deafening silence in the audience. Perhaps the other listeners were pondering what steps they could take to protect girls in the future? I don’t know. The poem was deeply moving - a harsh reality and reminder of the repression girls still experience in this region.
Now, imagine being evicted from home by your own parents, simply because you refused to undergo a certain tradition. Time and again girls have to flee from their homes in order to evade undergoing FGM/C or being married at a young age.
12-year-old Eunice* is one girl who has been faced with this choice. “I was in grade five when they [her parents] attempted to pull me out of school. They had already identified a 70-year-old man to marry me, but I did not want to get married to him, I wanted to continue with school. So I ran away,” Eunice remembers sadly.
Luckily enough, Eunice found a safe haven in a local rescue centre where she is currently being hosted with 156 other rescued girls – thank God. Now she is in grade seven and last year she had the fifth best marks in her class.
“I am hopeful of a brighter future,” Eunice confidently told me.
I also spoke to 17-year-old Nasieku, who is in her second to last year of secondary school. To her, education is the best way to empower the community.
“When you are educated no one can take the knowledge you have away from you,” she says. “It will take those who are educated to change our society, we must have a different opinion from those who have not gone to school,” she concluded.
World Vision is one of the NGOs that has been a stalwart campaigner against FGM/C, and has joined other like-minded organizations in working with parents and community leaders, convincing them to speak out against these harmful practices.
In 2011, Kenya passed the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act. As a member of the national FGM/C secretariat, World Vision Kenya participated in the drafting and review process. The dream to eliminate such harmful practices may seem far-fetched, but it is possible with one necessary step at a time, and I believe amplifying the voices of these girls will have some multiplying effects.
*Eunice’s name has been changed to protect her identity and keep her safe.