Tackling the Triad of Trouble: Addressing the Complexity of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting and Associated Factors in Maasai Communities of Southern Kenya

Abstract

Kenya lies in the FGM/C belt stretching across Africa, and the Maasai are frequent practitioners. FGM/C has been declining in Kenya over time but not among the Maasai. The Kenyan government, many outside agencies, and the Maasai council of elders are all working to eradicate this practice, yet it persists among the Maasai. Eradication efforts tend to be either idealist or materialist but not both. We studied three primary schools surrounding Maasai Mara National Reserve to investigate what is being done at the school level to fight this practice. We discovered that FGM/C among the Maasai is always associated with girls’ early school dropouts and early marriage (the “triad of trouble”), so the measurement of one is a proxy for the measurement of the others. We also verified that school dropout rates (and associated factors in the triad) are sharply lower in these schools than in the general Maasai population and still declining. This is being accomplished through a complex interplay of eradication efforts—both idealist and materialist—such as education, persuasion, coordination of enforcement, legal prosecution, and rescue centers for sheltering girls at risk of FGM/C. Community attitudes are shifting against FGM/C as a result of these Maasai-led initiatives.