A case filed by a medical doctor at the Machakos High Court seeking legalization of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) has caused uproar.
Dr. Tatu Kamau argues that outlawing FGM is against the culture of many African communities thus, the law should be reviewed.
Her case is before Justice David Kemei. The medic is also pushing for the scrapping of Anti-FGM Board.
Speaking to the press at Machakos Law Court on Wednesday, Dr. Kamau said all females should be allowed to make decisions about their bodies without being restricted by the law.
She said FGM, as it has been referred to hear in Kenya, is misleading because in western countries, they practice it only that it is known as Female Genital Surgery.
She added that if legalized, women can undergo the cut through established medical channels without being subjected to jail term as it is today.
“Female circumcision is practiced differently from one community to another, but it can be made safe. It is a minor surgical procedure that does not require anaesthesia or being put into a theatre,” said she as quoted by Daily Nation.
She remarked that there are many women who have been jailed for practicing FGM yet they are on the age of consent as to what to do with their bodies.
“Much as we want to protect the girl, there are many women who have been harassed and jailed in the last three years.
Once you reach adulthood there is no reason why you should not make that decision.”
Training her guns on Parliament, she termed the Anti-FGM law as a piece of legislation robbing the Kenyan people their culture.
“The Anti-FGM Act is a bad precedence of trying to micro-manage our culture.”
CEO of the Anti-FGM Board Benadette Loloji maintained the practice has no gains.
Loloji cited the fight against FGM has had more gain over the years as women in communities that practice the art now understand its health risk especially during reproduction.
She said the Board has been on outreach programmes that now extend to men within communities such as the Maasai where the FGM culture is quite prevalent.
“We are bringing the younger men on board because they are the ones who will bring the practice to an end. They are the ones who will decide whether to marry a woman who is uncut or not,” Loloji averred.
Other human rights organizations have been enjoined in the case that is set for hearing on February 26.