Escape from the cut: A shelter for girls in Kenya is reviving dreams

Girls at the Tasaru Rescue Centre in Narok County in Kenya’s Rift Valley. PHOTO FILE | NATION

A few weeks after Abigael Taki’s mother was buried, her father and stepmother came up with a plan to marry her off.

First, the nine-year-old needed to be circumcised to usher her into womanhood as per the age-old customs of her Maasai community. Her “suitor” was a 60-year-old man.