Light of hope has shone to Pokot girls haunted by the harmful cultural
practice. Leah Chebet Psiya 50, an instigator of fight against female
genital mutilation (FGM) in pokot has allayed the girls suffering and
restored their dignity.
She is teacher by profession and her passion is to educate the community
especially the girl child. As the director of Kamanat-meaning to protect -a
community based organization in pokot; Leah not only fights the fatal female
circumcision but also gender violence, HIV/AIDS and early marriage. “Kamanat
group was registered in the year 2004 as a self help group to save our girls
from FGM,” Leah said.
Her hard work in fighting the menace amongst girls has become bait that has
attracted many people from various parts of the country and made her
eminent. The passionate defender of girls and women in the society won a
‘whistle blower’ award last year, given by the National Commission on Human
Rights. “I am a lady at work and I never knew what I was doing could take me
this far, yes I am happy,” she said enthusiastically.
Cultural practice that seeks to abase and impoverish should be stopped for
the economic growth of the community, and this is what Leah has been trying
to do. She has taken a different dimension in fighting female genital
mutilation and early marriage. The mother of two now visits boys’ school to
sensitize them on the severe effects of FGM. She encourages boys to dissuade
their sisters to be circumcised. “I decided to use boys because they are the
one to bear the burden during marriage, I tell them to refuse marrying
circumcised girls,” She said.
Residential workshops have facilitated her duties in the entire Pokot
community. She with her team visits various villages and camp for a week
teaching both men and women. One of the methods she uses in teaching the
community is by use of photographs of affected female reproductive organs
after the cut, women and girls are taught separately due to fear they
develop amongst themselves, by doing this most of the women will be frank
in what they go through. For the whole period Kamanat group will be
delivering talks on FGM ,food has to be offered to the attendants to sustain
them in the camps and also help the hunger striken areas. “We carry our own
food to cook for them in the camp site since most of them might not attend
due to hunger; this has helped us reach a larger number of women and girls,
“She reveals.
Ms Leah Chebet has rescued more than 500 girls from FGM and early marriage.
In most cases, they find women and girls suffering from fistula who have
been hiding due to stigma. The victims are referred to hospitals for
treatments and the kamanat group pays the bills. “We pay up to thirty
thousands shillings for medication of those suffering after the cut,” Leah
said
Men too are not left out from the sensitization because they are the one
forcing their daughters into circumcision. According to the Pokot
traditions, once a girl attain adolescence she is forced to undergo the cut
and immediately after seclusion she is ready for marriage in which dowry
must be paid. This has made FGM to be prevalent in the area. “Parents do not
bother about the future of their daughters instead they rush to marry them
after mutilation to acquire dowry,” Leah, the widow said.
The community should be saved from the claws of culture where by girls were
used as a form of acquiring wealth and cultural practices that suppress a
girl child should be discarded. Rebuilding of the torn community has begun.
Leah Chebet has vowed not to leave any stone unturned from female
circumcision, gender violence, hunger and cattle rustling. She has been
going around the three pokot districts delivering talks on how to combat
hunger, FGM and cattle rustling.
Ms Leah who was born in Kacheliba escaped the cut because her father who was
a pastor was against this act which is against human right, the fact that
she lived in the community that practices is and even witnessed what her
friends had to go through motivated her to fight FGM in the community
because as she call the act ‘zimepitwa na wakati’. As she goes through the
process of saving the girls, most of the girls had to take refuge in her own
home as she tried to talk to the girls’ parents of the effects of FGM
because they don’t have a refuge camp, this being one of the challenges that
the organization faces.
She is the second ‘Musa’-in the bible (as they refer to her) - who is saving
girls from the bondage of harmful cultural practices. However as she
delivers her responsibilities, Leah has received death threats from those
who oppose her holding that the organization (Kamanat) is a threat to
culture and traditions. This has not discouraged her in any way and she has
remained intrepid disregarding the hostility, as she remains faithful to her
vows to set girls free from thorny cultures.
FGM has great effects on girls and women. Most of them suffer from fistula.
“The birth canal is narrowed during the cut and this makes it difficult for
the girl when giving birth due to damaged capillaries leading to fistula,”
She said that in most cases the mother or the baby or both may end up dying.
Contractions of HIV/AIDS, excessive bleeding that may lead to death are
other effects of FGM to the girl child. Also as soon as the girl is
circumcised, she is married off to any one who will offer to pay a good
dowry. This early and forced marriage bars the girl from pursuing her
studies; this leads to high increase of illiteracy in the community because
educating a woman is educating the whole society.
Ms Chebet says that cattle rustling is prevalent in the area because of the
large number of cattle that is supposed to be paid as dowry. “When it comes
to dowry, a circumcised pokot girl is very expensive and if the person does
not have the required amount he can mobilize a group to invade the
neighboring community to steal cattle so as to pay the dowry.
The Kamanat group is lacking financial support to fund its functions in the
community and also to cater for the girls’ basic needs, rescue homes to
accommodate the victims. “We are searching for a main donor to aid us build
a rescue home since the limited space in our own houses will not accommodate
them,” Leah, a determined woman said.
One of the challenges that really breaks Leah’s heart is that even after
her “missionary” work in the community some girls still chooses to push
through with the cut due to peer pressure and other reasons which
she(Leah)doesn’t know.
Leah reveals that many parents who force their daughters to be circumcised
have been apprehended after her team and she blows the whistle but the
government has been relenting towards them since they are released after two
days of detention.
The fight against FGM amongst Kenyan communities will not cease unless
urgent intervention measures are put in place to save the situation. The
government should introduce new laws to impose harsh penalties on those who
still practice this harmful act.
