Nominated Senator Catherine Mumma / HANDOUT
People who knowingly fail to report FGM or remain at the scene as the practice is carried out could face up to three years in jail or a Sh200,000 fine under a proposed law.
The tough measures are contained in the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation (Amendment) Bill, 2026, sponsored by nominated Senator Catherine Mumma.
“A person commits an offence if the person is physically present at the place where genital mutilation is being or is about to be performed or in the immediate vicinity of that place, but fails to report as soon as is reasonably practicable to a law enforcement officer,” the Bill states.
The proposed law, which has been published for introduction in the Senate first reading, also seeks to stop the prosecution of survivors of FGM for offences arising from their own mutilation.
However, the reporting obligation would not apply to a victim of FGM if the person is the subject of the offence.
It would also not apply where the commission or intended commission of FGM is already known to a law enforcement officer or has entered the public domain.
Mumma says the amendments are necessary to address what she describes as an unintended consequence of the existing law.
The lawmaker argues that people who have themselves undergone FGM can be prosecuted and convicted under provisions intended to eradicate the practice in the current law.
“The principal object of the Bill is to amend the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act to address the unintended consequence that the majority of persons prosecuted and convicted under the Act are themselves victims or survivors of female genital mutilation,” the Bill states.
According to Mumma, this has resulted in the “criminalisation of surviving the very practice the Act was enacted to eradicate” and the re-victimisation of people the law was intended to protect.
The Bill proposes, for the first time, to define an FGM victim as a person who “has undergone, or is undergoing, female genital mutilation performed on that person’s own genitalia”.
“It is a defence to any charge under this Act that the accused person is a victim of female genital mutilation in respect of the procedure that is the subject of the charge,” the proposed section states.
The defence would also apply where a conviction would violate the accused person’s constitutional right to bodily autonomy or the right against self-incrimination.
The proposed changes come against the backdrop of concerns raised by the courts over the existing reporting provisions.
Mumma cites the 2016 High Court decision in KL v Republic, in which the court recommended that Section 24 of the Act be reconsidered, describing it as “vague, difficult to apply to real varied situations” and an “unacceptable encroachment of civil freedom”.
The Bill, therefore, seeks to replace the existing Section 24, which currently makes failure to report an offence where a person is aware that FGM has been committed, is being committed or is intended.
Under the current law, a person convicted of an offence under the Act faces imprisonment for a term of not less than three years, a fine of not less than Sh200,000, or both.
The proposed amendments could, therefore, alter how police and courts handle cases involving survivors, particularly where the person facing prosecution is also the victim of the mutilation.
The Bill says the proposed protections are not intended to weaken the fight against FGM but to ensure that survivors are not punished for harm inflicted upon them.
It also recognises that the changes would have implications for county governments, which have responsibilities in health services and cultural activities.
County health facilities and cultural officers are among the actors involved in implementing and enforcing the anti-FGM law.
“The amendments proposed in this Bill, particularly the narrowed reporting obligations, non-criminalisation of victims and defences in proceedings, will, therefore, have a direct bearing on how county governments discharge these devolved functions,” the Bill states.
