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Rights & Safety4 min read

Know Your Rights on FGM

For girls at risk and survivors: accurate information about their rights, what FGM is and why it causes harm, and direct pathways to GBV support lines, legal resources, and trusted health providers — because knowing you have a choice, and knowing where to go, can be the difference between harm and safety.

You have done nothing wrong

If this has happened to you, the law does not treat you as the wrongdoer. The Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act creates offences for the people who perform, arrange, assist or host FGM — not for the girl or woman it is done to.

If you are at risk, or you are living with the effects of something that was done to you, you are entitled to care, to privacy, and to be treated with dignity. Reaching out is your choice and your right.

FGM is a criminal offence in Kenya

“A person, including a person undergoing a course of training while under supervision by a medical practitioner or midwife with a view to becoming a medical practitioner or midwife, who performs female genital mutilation on another person commits an offence.”

Prohibition of FGM Act 2011, kenyalaw.org — section 19(1)

“A person who commits an offence under this Act is liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for a term of not less than three years, or to a fine of not less than two hundred thousand shillings, or both.”

Prohibition of FGM Act 2011, kenyalaw.org — section 29

“If in the process of committing an offence under subsection (1) a person causes the death of another, that person shall, on conviction, be liable to imprisonment for life.”

Prohibition of FGM Act 2011, kenyalaw.org — section 19(2)

Consent, culture and custom are not defences

“It is no defence to a charge under this section that the person on whom the act involving female genital mutilation was performed consented to that act, or that the person charged believed that such consent had been given.”

Prohibition of FGM Act 2011, kenyalaw.org — section 19(6)

“In determining, for purposes of subsection (3)(a), whether or not any surgical procedure is performed on any person for the benefit of that person's physical or mental health, a person's culture, religion or other custom or practice shall be of no effect.”

Prohibition of FGM Act 2011, kenyalaw.org — section 19(5)

This matters if you are being told that agreeing to it, or that tradition, makes it lawful. Under Kenyan law it does not.

The law also covers those who help arrange it

Section 20 makes it an offence to aid, abet, counsel or procure a person to commit an offence under section 19, or to procure another person to perform FGM on themselves.

Prohibition of FGM Act 2011, kenyalaw.org — section 20

“A person commits an offence if the person takes another person from Kenya to another country, or arranges for another person to be brought into Kenya from another country, with the intention of having that other person subjected to female genital mutilation.”

Prohibition of FGM Act 2011, kenyalaw.org — section 21

Section 22 covers knowingly allowing premises to be used for FGM, and section 23 covers possession of tools or equipment for a purpose connected with performing it. Section 28 extends the Act to acts committed outside Kenya by citizens and permanent residents.

Prohibition of FGM Act 2011, kenyalaw.org — sections 22, 23 and 28

Reporting is a duty the law places on other people, not a burden it places on you. Section 24 makes it an offence for a person who is aware that FGM has been, is being, or is intended to be committed to fail to report it to a law enforcement officer.

Prohibition of FGM Act 2011, kenyalaw.org — section 24

You cannot lawfully be shamed for not undergoing it

“Any person who uses derogatory or abusive language that is intended to ridicule, embarrass or otherwise harm a woman for having not undergone female genital mutilation, or a man for marrying or otherwise supporting a woman who has not undergone female genital mutilation, commits an offence and shall be liable, upon conviction, to imprisonment for a term not less than six months, or to a fine of not less than fifty thousand shillings, or both.”

Prohibition of FGM Act 2011, kenyalaw.org — section 25

The Government owes you protection and support

“The Government shall take necessary steps within its available resources to— (a) protect women and girls from female genital mutilation; (b) provide support services to victims of female genital mutilation; and (c) undertake public education and sensitise the people of Kenya on the dangers and adverse effects of female genital mutilation.”

Prohibition of FGM Act 2011, kenyalaw.org — section 27

What WHO says about the harm

WHO defines FGM as procedures involving the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

Source: WHO

FGM has no health benefits, only harm.

Source: WHO

More than 230 million girls and women alive today have undergone FGM across 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and more than 4 million girls are estimated to be at risk each year. It is mostly carried out between infancy and age 15.

Source: WHO

Immediate complications can include severe pain, bleeding, swelling, fever, infections, urinary problems and shock. Longer-term effects can include chronic urinary and vaginal infections, menstrual problems, sexual difficulties, an increased risk of childbirth complications, and psychological effects. These are treatable concerns to raise with a health provider — not things you have to manage alone.

Source: WHO

WHO strongly urges health workers not to perform FGM. If a health worker offers to carry it out, that does not make it safe and it does not make it lawful in Kenya.

Source: WHO

Where to turn

The national GBV helpline on 1195 is toll-free and answered 24 hours a day, and can connect you to counselling, health facilities, legal aid, shelters and rescue centres across all 47 counties.

Source: Healthcare Assistance Kenya

Kenyan law entitles you to be treated with dignity, respect and privacy at any health facility, and what you tell a health provider is confidential.

Kenya Health Act 2017, available at kenyalaw.org — sections 5(2) and 11(1)

If you are in immediate danger, contact emergency services or the helpline above rather than waiting.

Content on this page is sourced from publicly available guidance published by the World Health Organization (who.int) and the Kenya Ministry of Health, and from legislation published by the National Council for Law Reporting (kenyalaw.org). All sources are attributed inline and in the sources section below. This content is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. SheFirst is a program of Be Well and Green Network.

Sources

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