| dc.description.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. | en_US |
