THE LAW
Anti-FGM/C legislation is seen by many to be crucial in efforts to eradicate the practice, and a number of African governments have introduced it, with mixed results. The first chapter in this section directly discusses these laws and their implementation, while the other explores wider issues that have legal dimensions. The authors of both chapters agree on the need to end FGM/C, but sharply diverge in their views on whether legislation is the most effective way of doing this.
Chapter 11 is written by a lawyer (Kirigo Njenga) who works for an anti-FGM/C NGO. It provides an overview of anti-FGM/C legislation and how it has developed in Africa, plotting the successes, failures, and obstacles to successful implementation. Two case studies, on Senegal and Kenya, illustrate how different countries have moved from campaigning and enactment to implementation of laws. The author discusses the challenges faced in converting legal change into changes in practice, and concludes that legislation alone cannot end FGM/C, but must be part of a larger set of holistic strategies involving communities.
Chapter 12 (Tatu Kamau) is not about the law per se, but discusses (in part) some anomalies in legislation, the negative impacts of criminalising FGM/C, and anomalous approaches to different types of male and female genital surgery, with particular reference to Kenya. Kamau challenges some assumptions made by the anti-FGM/C movement, and seeks to explain the persistence of FGM/C despite a century of intervention efforts. Drawing on the author’s clinical experience and representing an indigenous perspective, the chapter explores why FGM/C has ‘refused to die’, while outlining political, cultural, and ethical issues for broader reflection. It chimes with points made in Chapter 10 (Van Bavel et al.), and in the Afterword (Gruenbaum).