In an era where contemporary society continues to shift perception against and outlaw some extreme yet idolized cultural practices, there are people and communities that might not escape the cross-fire unscathed.
Uganda’s rich tapestry of culture and heritage interweaves norms and traditions that are exciting to learn about, entertaining to experience but can also be barbaric and straining, especially on the girl-child and women in general. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is one such practice.
Regardless of the 2010 Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act that criminalizes FGM, it’s no secret that deep within the beautiful landscapes Sebei and Karamoja subregions, girls and women are still choosing or being pressured to have clitoridectomy – removal or part of all of the clitoris – done for no reason other than upholding a culture ideal, its excruciating cons notwithstanding.
The 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS) data indicates that the prevalence of FGM in Uganda is at 0.3% among women of ages 15-49.
In the Karamoja subregion; Moroto, Amudat, Nakapiripirti, particularly among the Pokot communities, FGM is typically done among younger teenage girls while in the neighbouring Sebei subregion; Kween, Kapchorwa and Bukwo, the practice is higher among older teenagers, young women and spinsters.
FGM is still practiced secretly, fostered by factors including peer pressure, desire to be part of other cultural ceremonies such as male circumcision – only mutilated women are allowed to attend this ceremony – and the perceived weaker laws against the practice on the Kenyan side. Cross-border FGM frustrates efforts to wipe out the practice completely.
Engaging locals in Kapkwai, primenews established that much as the traditional surgeons and birth attendants are not exactly having a booming business following the prohibition of the practice by the government, they do not close their doors to people seeking their service.
One Life Taken, Another Hangs in Balance
Girls who refuse to get mutilated in FGM practicing societies tend to be deemed uncultured, outlaws and in extreme events, “bad omen” to their families.
These are blamed for adversities that face their families, including disease and deaths, a predicament that not only ostracizes them but also puts them on the risk of getting harmed by angry relatives.
Sulainah Nakyazze Kajoba, a graduate lawyer, lives in fear following an attack on a girl identified as Shifra Chemutai, who was knocked down by assailants on a motorcycle, thought to be the former.
Chemutai didn’t survive the injuries sustained in the accident earlier in January 2024. Nakyazze, who was the target of the attack, now lives in fear considering it would have been her life cut short.
Nakyazze, whose grandmother and maternal family hails from Kapchorwa, lived her early life in Uganda’s capital – Kampala, without a care about the cringe tradition.
Unfortunately for her, as fate would have it, she had to go back to Kapchorwa years after her grandmother’s death, to tie a few loose ends with family. She is the heir to her grandmother’s properties.
Nakyazze being chosen as heir didn’t sit right with her relatives who considered her a culture traitor and therefore not deserving of such an inheritance.
Upon her arrival, news of her return spread among locals and relatives, and a plan to get her mutilated was quickly hatched. She would then run off to Kenya where she stayed with a friend before the passing of another family member forced her out of hiding.
Before long, she would start receiving snide comments about being the bad omen that caused her grandmother’s death.
Mere Coincidence Versus “Bad Omen”
After 2 failed attempts to forcefully mutilate her, 2 more deaths happened in the family in a short period.
The elders blamed the deaths on Nakyazze’s refusal to participate in the ritual.
Following the fatal attack and endless threats on her life, Nakyazze’s world shrank expeditiously, relatives and friends abandoning her in fear of persecution over affiliation.
“Two men came to the bar where we were having a drink and randomly asked if we were uncles of a one Sulainah Nakyazze. The name rang a bell because earlier, at one of the burials held in the family, people had this idea that the girl needs to be mutilated or ‘done away with’ to prevent more deaths. We didn’t want to get involved so we denied knowing who the girl was,” a source who preferred anonymity spoke to primenews earlier in this month.
Efforts to get to Nakyazze for an interview were futile as her exact location wasn’t known to our available sourced at the time of this story’s production. A phone number given by her distant aunt in Kampala was not reachable either.
It would then emerge that Nakyazze was back in Kampala last month, January with the help of an uncle.
A source close to the knightly uncle told primenews that Nakyazze’s safer resort would be leaving the country “since the people back home won’t let this perceived problem go unresolved. It is ridiculous.”
“I think this is also about the property. Sulainah spent many years here (Kampala), after the separation of her parents. She didn’t know her paternal side well. So, I think those people are not just after her initiation into this foolish thing (FGM), they are driving her away so they can have what her grandmother left,” the aforementioned source told primenews in a phone call interview last week.