This archive report was first published on 10 May 2021.
Kuria's First FGM Survivor: A True Role Model ¶
Ms Robi Marwa, a retired high school teacher and anti-FGM crusader, is the first Kuria woman to escape the wrath of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in 1974.
Ms Robi's father, a senior pastor at the time, refused to let her undergo the cut, citing biblical teachings that there was nowhere in the Bible that talked about women circumcision.
Despite facing exclusion and threats of excommunication from the community, Ms Robi's father ensured her safety and education by making her flee the village to another location within Migori.
Ms Robi went on to study all the way to the university and eventually became a respected high school teacher.
Today, she encourages Kuria women to denounce the practice, citing her own life experience as a living example.
Ms Robi emphasizes that Kuria girls should use the avenues that are now existing to help themselves better their education instead of accepting to undergo the cut.
She praises the government's commitment to ending FGM by 2022 and encourages every Kuria girl to use the opportunity to help themselves in future.
Ms Robi has started a primary academic school to help the vulnerable Kuria girls get better education and has seen her first candidates score 406 marks in the 2020 KCPE.
She is worried at the Migori County's FGM prevalence rate that stands at 78 percent and pleads with the government to move with speed to launch and enforce the Kuria Declaration that works towards ending the vice completely.
