The teachers are asking for protection because someone has threatened to subject them to a dehumanising experience - not to mention the fact that it could result in permanent injury to some of them and that even death cannot be ruled out.

The teachers say they are living under a threat of forcible circumcision.

The teachers from Garissa Road Primary School and Broadway Secondary School in Thika Town, say the threats were contained in leaflets. The leaflets' authors told the women to volunteer for circumcision at a fee of Sh100 each or they would be sought out and this done by force.

Crime and invasion of privacy quickly come to mind on reading the report that reflects a mentality from which the new Kenya is trying to break away. The threats expose the women to a danger they least expected to encounter. It runs counter to the spirit of respecting individual freedoms. The Sh100 demanded amounts to extortion.

It is really immaterial what ethnic background the women under threat come from. For many years now, there has been a national campaign against what is medically known as female genital mutilation, not just in Kenya but in many other parts of Africa and in other regions where this tradition had been practised as part of the initiation ceremonies for women.

The campaign against the "female cut" has not been a blind advocacy against cultural traits deemed to be primitive. Neither should it only be seen as championing personal freedom for the female gender. No, the campaign emerged on the strength of the risks involved in female circumcision.

The finger is being pointed at a pseudo religious-cum-cultural group as the people behind the threats to have women circumcised. They have denied this. But for now it doesn't matter who is behind the threats. The police have been alerted. They must not take the threats lightly especially as these have been made against a most vulnerable group. They must also investigate who the leaflet authors are.

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