The role of mugambo fm in female genital mutilation awareness in Tigania West constituency, Meru county, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of Mugambo FM in female genital mutilation awareness in Tigania West Consti tuency, Meru County, Kenya. The objectives of the study are: to investigate how Mugamb o FM has been used to create awareness about FGM and the abandonment of the practi ce and to examine the attitudes of the community members towards radio programme s addressing FGM.The target population for this study was listeners and managers of this community radio station. The target population was chosen carefully to include all gender and age groups. Quota sampling was used to select eight focus groups of sec ondary school girls who were listeners of the radio station with each group having fifteen respondents. This amounted to 120 girls. Eighty parents were purposivel y selected and a manager of Mugambo FM was selected. The research instruments included interviews for the focus groups, questionnaires for the parents and Key Informant Interview with a manager working with Mugambo FM. Data was analyzed and presented in a detailed re port on the various remarks from the focus groups meetings, the station mana ger and parents’ questionnaires. The results of this study s how that FGM is still practi ced in the study locale though secretly. This justifies the purpose of this study which was to investigate the role played by Mugambo FM in creating FGM awareness. It is clear from the study that Mugambo FM plays an important role in creating FGM awareness and could be contributing to the reported decline in the practi ce among other efforts aimed at fighting FGM. It is also apparent that participatory nature of the FGM programmes made them appealing to the audience hence increasing lis tenership. Therefore majority of the community members had positive attitudes towards Mugambo FM and programmes about FGM. This hence led to increased awareness of FGM. Furthermor e, invitation of the experts to tackle FGM issues increases awareness thereby prom oting FGM practice abandonment. Mugambo FM collaborated with Government agen cies; Community base d organizations and religious organizations in creating FGM awareness and also fighting the practice. However, other than awareness creation on dangers of FGM, Mugambo FM should also focus more on the anti-FGM laws to put record straight on real lega l consequences of the practice. Moreover, given the secretive na ture of the FGM practice, investigative journalism is vital in order to find more about FGM in order to enhance more FGM awareness.