We meet Cecilia Ekeno at a mentorship session she is having with young girls at the Anti-Poaching Unit Dispensary grounds in Burat Ward, Isiolo County. Here, she is having a heart-to-heart talk with the girls about fundamental human rights, including the right to live free from violence and child marriages. 

“When schools close, we bring girls together in a safe space and talk to them about their sexual and reproductive health owing to the many cases of teen pregnancy that we have been experiencing in this area,” says Cecilia. 

18 year old *Lelerewa present at the mentorship sessions is among the girls whose life changed for the better courtesy of the Inua Mama group.  

When a man well known to her defiled her leaving her pregnant; it is the Inua Mama group that came to her aid, supporting her through psychosocial sessions as she journeyed through the legal corridors. Though it took months before the perpetrator was apprehended, the women ensured that justice was served and perpetrator locked behind bars. 

“After I gave birth to my son, the women paid part of my school fees and bought school essentials,” says the delighted Lelerewa who is preparing sit for her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education later this year. 

“Our major challenge however is that the community does not see the need to have girls go to school,” Cecilia says, explaining that such level of discrimination kills the dreams of many young girls.  

She notes that the low value attached to girls schooling is tantamount to killing their future and the cycle of acute poverty prevails. 

In Isiolo, the deeply embedded cultural practices such as FGM, beading (a tradition in which girls are booked or engaged to older for sexual purposes) and child marriages exposes girls to early sexual debut, health risks and domestic violence. 

Cecilia and 18 other members of the Inua Mama group are however working to create safe spaces and communities for girls to go to school and enjoy their full purpose.  

Together with her group, Cecilia is part of the vocal women activists who have been trained by CREAW through the Wajibika Project and are now leading conversations in the community to shift away the norms that endangers the life of women and girls in the community. 

Apart from the off school conversations with the girls, they have also made it part of their mandate to engage parents and local administration officials to make them part of the solution to the change needed for many girls in the area. 

“We realized that we must start the conversations at home then we extend it to the larger community. Our little steps are beginning to cause ripples,” says Cecilia. 

Looking at the bigger picture, the women are concerned that to date the county does not have safe homes to shelter girls who face violence in the community. They say, a gender policy for the county will go along way in streamlining a roadmap that would address the systemic issues that promotes violence against women and girls as well as avail resources to bridge the inequality gap in the County. 

Sheikh Mohammed Wario listens keenly as fellow villagers take turns to converse about a topic that for long has gone unspoken yet many girls continue to wallow in pain as their right to choice and dignity is taken away. 

As the dialogues proceeds, he takes turn to speak out his mind- “ we must tell ourselves the truth that we are destroying the lives of our daughters. I believe we can all be part of the change. Our girls deserve to be in school and not married off,” says the 58-year-old father of nine. 

Among the Borana community living in Kina, Isiolo County where Sheikh Wario ails from, girls as young as seven years are forced to undergo genital cutting and married off to elderly men in exchange for goats and camels.

As a Sheikh, he has continuously refused to yield to the pressure to circumcise her three daughters aged 6, 10 and 13 as it is in the norm in many household. A few years ago, he had an opportunity to travel to India where he learnt about women rights issues and was inspired by fellow clerics who were working to protect their wives and daughters from discriminatory cultural practices. 

And when he learnt about the teachings on gender based violence done by the Malka Bisanadi Cultural group, he was delighted to join in- bringing along his two wives to the various dialogues to also be enlightened. 

Malka Bisanadi Cultural group, is one of the a women-led groups operating in Kina Sub-County of Isiolo, their initiatives cuts across women’s economic empowerment coupled with conversations geared towards eliminating violence against women and girls in the community. 

For Wario, the ability for young girls to have a voice on matters regarding their wellbeing is key and as such he teachers young girls in his Madrasa session to be aware of their rights and to speak out on violations. Since he started participating in the community conversations with the women activists, he has taken keen interest in rallying other elderly members of the community to abandon the practice of FGM and give girls a voice over their bodily autonomy. 

 “As a Sheikh am aware that FGM is not part of Islam, it is just part of the culture that we must do away with,” says the Sheikh noting that Islamic values are intended to safeguard the well being of everyone in the community; women and girls included. 

With the anti-FGM campaigns gaining momentum in Kenya, religious leaders like Sheikh Wario plays a crucial role in delinking FGM from the religious aspects that promotes tolerance to the practice and mobilizing communities to lead the fight against it.  

Over the last one year, CREAW adopted the use of a community dialogues in FGM in Narok and Isiolo counties which are key FGM hotspots to raise awareness among community members; clerics and council of elders included. In the dialogues, communities discusses emerging trends and the norms that are a threat to the survival of women and girls.  

“I am happy when I meet with fellow men in the dialogues. It shows that they too are eager to learn and be part of the change we so desire for the future of our young girls,” he says. 

As a Sheikh, he is held in high regards and his opinion is respected community members; as such, he is using his stature and voice to end the age-old practice of FGM.