CORRELATE BETWEEN THE INFLUENCE OF FGM PRACTICE AND EARLY MARRIAGE: A CASE STUDY OF THE ILLCHAMUS COMMUNITY IN BARINGO COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) refers to all procedures involving the partial or total removal of all the external female genitalia or any other injury to the female genital organ for non-medical reasons. Many girls who have undergone FGM opt to gate married early as they view education as meaningless. The main purpose of this study was to determine correlates between the effects of FGM practice and early marriage among Illchamus girls. The Illchamus are pastoralists whose livelihood depended on livestock. Despite the immense awareness of the dangers of FGM practice on the victims in many aspects in life, efforts to eradicate it, still persists and thrives. The study was premised on the social exchange theory and adopted a descriptive research design. Purposive and random sampling techniques were used to identify the respondents for the study. The study targeted a population of 100,000 and a sample size of 384 respondents. The research adopted both qualitative and quantitative approaches to data collection which included questionnaires, key informant interview and the focus group discussions. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 for windows was used to analyze the data.