Female genital mutilation, traditionally known as circumcision has been outlawed among young girls in Kenya.

The ban is expected to radically improve school attendance among girls, since most of them drop out of school after circumcision, chief inspector of schools Daniel Rono said.

Announcing the ban last week, president Daniel arap Moi said circumcising girls under the age 17 was now a crime punishable by a minimum of an year’s jail term or a fine of 50,000 Kenya shillings (pound;500). The announcement was in line with legislation on children’s rights recently enacted by the Kenya parliament.

However, the practice is widespread in rural areas, where young girls are forced to undergo the cultural rite before puberty, usually at between the ages of nine and 12 and are then married off to older men. An estimated 40 per cent of women aged 15 to 49 have been circumcised. Among certain tribes prevalence of genital mutilation is almost 80 per cent.

To ensure enforcement of the ban, the government has promised police protection for those at risk. “Anyone found circumcising a girl of 16 would go straight to jail,” President Moi said. Older girls will be free to choose, but the law will prevent them being forced to undergo the operation.

To discourage female circumcision in rural areas, the government has directed a crackdown on circumcisers who continue to operate secretly. Many of them are community leaders. Last year, two teenage schoolgirls in Kenya won a landmark court ruling preventing their father from forcing them to undergo circumcision and eventually marry them off as second wives to friends his own age.

Globally 120 to 140 million girls have undergone some form of genital mutilation and two million are at risk each year. According to the World Health Organisation, the practice is common in 28 countries, most in sub-Saharan Africa.