Kenyan Female Doctor, Tatu Kamau Wants Female Genital Mutilation Decriminalized

Tatu Kamau, a Kenyan female doctor wants female genital mutilation to be decriminalized. She is asking Kenya’s courts  to allow women above 18 the right to practice female genital mutilation, saying that they have a right to choose what they want to do with their bodies as adults.

Kenyan Female Doctor, Tatu Kamau Wants Female Genital Mutilation Decriminalized
Tatu Kamau
Photocredit: Daily Nation

She also wants the  Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act 2011   to be annulled and the law, disbanded. In a 2017 petition which she filed against the government, she adds that female genital mutilation is an age old tradition in Kenya and that an outright ban infringes on women’s rights to exercise their cultural beliefs.

CNN reports that Tatu Kamau is currently representing herself in the case before the Nairobi High Court. She has also told judges that using the term “mutilation” disregards the cultural significance of the practice and is offensive.
Tatu Kamau was quoted saying,
Women who took their daughters for circumcision were not taking them there to destroy them. Those children were not thrown away afterward, they were celebrated as respected members of the society. To use the word in our context suggests that it is malicious and that we are intentionally damaging our females. To me, it is very wrong.
According to her, medical workers and “certified” traditional cutters should be allowed to circumcise women.
She is quoted by CNN saying,
We could have had limitations of where you can do it, when, who can do it for you and how …Those things could have been controlled … such that you have certain months of the year and that is the only time you can do and it can only be done by certain professionals, those are the only people who are allowed to do it.
FGM is currently  illegal in Kenya and any Kenyan involved in the practice stands the risk of spending three years in prison.
Tatu Kamau’s action can be likened to taking one step forward and fifty steps backward. It is totally shocking that a female doctor would be pushing for female genital mutilation, knowing fully well the harm it brings to girls. We can only hope that her request is not granted.
At the moment, Tatu Kamau’s petition has been adjourned until December.
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