KWEEN – Police has announced that it has intensified operations against female genital mutilation (FGM) in Sebei sub-region after 18 people were on Monday in court charged with aiding and abetting the practice that was banned in Uganda in 2010.
Among those charged and remanded is 50-year-old Irene Cherop, who was said to be the ringleader of the practice in Kongilel village, Kaptum sub-county in Kween district.
“We have noted that the recent cases of FGM stem from a concept of family honour, where only mothers who had undergone circumcision, where deemed suitable to grace the male circumcision ceremony of their son’s in 2018. As a result, mothers started allowing their daughters to undergo circumcision as a way of protecting their future,” police said in a statement.
The Force added that there also further efforts to trace for victims in three separate villages of Kwoser, where 7 girls where circumcised; and Binyiny where an additional 07 girls are alleged to have been circumcised.
“The police is absolutely committed to fighting FGM and do hope that the successful prosecution of the perpetrators including parents, husbands and victims who mutate themselves, will act as deterrents. We have meanwhile established contacts with influential community members and other stakeholders to challenge the practice; as well as tasked teachers, health and social care professionals to report cases of FGM once established in the course of their duties in schools and hospitals.”
