This archive report was first published on 16 November 2019.
On November 15, 2019, a Marimanti court in Tharaka-Nithi County handed down a three-year prison sentence to two women from Ntongoni village in Tharaka constituency who had pleaded guilty to circumcising each other.
Ms Winjoy Wanja, 27, and Julia Ngugi, 25, who are married to two brothers, claimed they had decided to cut each other using a razor blade to protect their children from a lineage curse that was threatening their lives.
According to the women, an ancestor in their marital home had pronounced a curse before she died, stating that all women married into the family must be circumcised or else their children would die.
However, when issuing the judgment, Senior Resident Magistrate Peter Maina revealed that probation officers had visited the village and found the women's claims to be false.
Ms Wanja had earlier stated, 'We decided to circumcise each other to avoid the death of our children due to a family curse.'
Tharaka-Nithi County has seen several cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) in recent years, with many women being forced to undergo the practice to avoid family curses or to be accepted by their communities.
