This archive report was first published on 17 September 2019.
Published on September 17, 2019, a woman from Baringo County shared her traumatic experience with female genital mutilation (FGM), which nearly cost her life.
At just 13 years old in 1978, Jennifer Kibon was forced by her parents to undergo the cut, along with seven others. She bled excessively and fainted, only to be revived with raw cow blood.
'I bled excessively until I fainted. My helpers later forced me to take raw cow blood,' Kibon recalled during the African Zero Tolerance to FGM celebrations in Loita, Narok.
Her ordeal did not end there. Kibon became sickly and emaciated, and was isolated from the rest of her community. She was eventually 'married off' to a man she did not love, and suffered a miscarriage during delivery.
'I underwent an operation but I lost my baby,' Kibon said, her voice a testament to the devastating consequences of FGM.
It was only in 2013 that Kibon found the courage to stand up for her daughters, refusing to have them undergo the same painful procedure. Her husband, who had demanded the girls be circumcised, chased her away and married three more women.
Today, Kibon is a proud member of the Tangubei Women Network, a group of 2,000 women who are fighting against FGM in Baringo County. The network is chaired by Mary Kuket, who has condemned communities that still practice FGM and urged the government to take legal action against them.
