Four girls aged 15 years were apprehended in West Pokot after they underwent the outlawed Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
The girls, who were nabbed alongside their parents, said that they were not forced to undergo the rite but presented themselves willingly due to peer pressure.
Their parents were arraigned before a Court where they denied charges of having forced their children to undergo the cut.
The Court ordered that they be remanded until October 14 as police continued with investigations.
On their parents' defense, the minors said that they organized the whole process by themselves and that their parents were not involved.
“Our parents never forced us to undergo the rite. We escaped from our homes one week before we underwent the cut. We walked several kilometres to Dung’u Dung’u village, where we met the old woman, who performed the rite,” The Standard quoted one of the girls.
One of the girls, however, mentioned that she was not aware that the rite of passage was illegal.
FGM was prohibited in Kenya in 2010 when Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Bill 2010, was passed to law by the 10th Parliament due to the dangerous and sometimes deadly effects.
The government and civil societies have, however, found it difficult to enforce the law successfully as some communities hold the practice dearly, as part of their culture.
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