Friday, December 15, 2000

UN Wire

GENITAL MUTILATION

Court Order Protects Kenyan Sisters

For the first time in Kenya, two teenage sisters have won a court order preventing their father from forcing them to undergo female genital mutilation without their consent.

A court in Rift Valley Province issued a permanent injunction against the father and ordered him to continue providing financial support for the daughters, aged 15 and 17. The girls brought the case against their father with the help of Kenya's Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

Ken Wafula, the girls' lawyer, said the case is historic, adding that it would encourage other girls to defy the tradition. Human rights groups also welcomed the court order as an important step toward ending the practice, which remains widespread in much of rural Kenya.

Last weekend, a 16-year-old girl in Kenya's Bomet district bled to death after undergoing the procedure.