FGM call angers

A Kenyan doctor has been condemned after filing a controversial petition to legalise female genital mutilation. Dr Tatu Kamau, who has held high-level positions at the Ministry of Health, told a high court that Kenya’s 2011 ban on FGM was unconstitutional and discriminated against ‘‘national heritage’’. She claimed that women who chose to harm their bodies with alcohol or cigarettes should also have the freedom to decide whether they were cut. According to the United Nations, 21 per cent of girls and women in Kenya aged 15 to 49 have undergone FGM, which is often forced on them by their parents or elders, and the ban has pushed the practice further underground.