Three women arrested for forcing their daughters to undergo FGM
Police in Thika have arrested three women for subjecting their four daughters to female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
The circumcised girls, aged between nine and 12 years, were taken from the house they had been locked up in Majengo estate to the Thika Level Five Hospital for treatment.
Thika West Sub County Police Commander Beatrice Kiraguri said the cut was carried out on Friday night by an elderly woman from the town’s Kiandutu slums, who is still at large.
Kiraguri said they received information from the public that some girls had been detained in a house at the estate, and swung into action.
GUARDING OUTSIDE
“We found the girls locked in the house and their mothers guarding outside. After interrogating them, they informed that they were forced by their parents to undergo the cut,” she told the press.
The women have been detained at the Thika police station, waiting to be charged.
Kiraguri said the practice will not be condoned in the town and that anyone found will face the full wrath of the law.
She said they had launched a manhunt for the circumciser and promised that she would soon be apprehended.
Local residents said the incident was the first to be reported in the estate and lauded the police for their swift action.
Last week, President Uhuru Kenyatta warned those who practise FGM that they will be dealt with firmly.
He said FGM was an archaic cultural practice that should be eradicated completely.