A man who tried to commit suicide after learning that his wife had secretly undergone female circumcision without his consent has been arrested.
Mr Josiah Kirui, the assistant chief for Kapolecho sub location in Trans Mara East District said the 20-year-old man jumped into a dam moments after learning that his wife was among five women who had been circumcised earlier in the week.
Villagers dragged him out of the water and handed him over to the police.
The young man and his spouse are said to have been Form Three students at a school in Chepalungu District before they customarily tied the knot early last month after the girl reportedly became pregnant.
More than 100 women, some of them married, were circumcised in the region in the past two weeks. Among them was a mother of five and her daughter.
Trans Mara East District Commissioner Albert Mwilitza said despite a government ban on female circumcision, the practice was still rife in the area.
He warned those still performing or undergoing the rite that they did so at their own peril as the law would take its course if they were caught.
He said female circumcision in the district had resulted in a high dropout rate among schoolgirls.
The district commissioner said parents who withdrew their daughters from school and forcibly circumcised them and then marrying them off would be dealt with sternly.
Source: Daily Nation
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