Nice Nailantei Leng'ete

Nice Nailantei Leng'ete (born 1991) is a Kenyan human rights activist, advocating for alternative rite of passage (ARP) for girls in Africa and campaigning to stop female genital mutilation (FGM). In her work with Amref Health Africa, Leng'ete has saved an estimated 17,000 girls from undergoing genital mutilation and for many, childhood marriages. She was named by Time magazine in 2018 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Early life and education Nice Nailantei Leng'ete was born in 1991 in the village of Kimana in Maasai country, Kenya. She was orphaned when both her parents died in 1997 and 1998. She spent her early years moving among many different homes in her village. When she was eight years old, she was sent away to a boarding-school. It was there she discovered that "the cut", a rite of passage for girls transitioning to womanhood in her Maasai culture, was not required.

Growing up, I used to attend these circumcision ceremonies and I could see a lot of pain. All the girls from my own village, after they were circumcised, they had to drop out of school, and be married to old men—people who were not even of their choice. These are 10-year-old or 12-year-old girls. They're still children. They're considered women because they have undergone circumcision. But again, these are just still children. After seeing all that pain, I think that's what made me realize that this was something I didn't want to do. I knew that I would not be able to go back to boarding school [about an hour away]. I would be married, and that would just be the end of me.

In the Maasai culture, women are not allowed to address village elders, but when Leng’ete attended a sexual health class sponsored by Amref Health Africa, she asked the village leaders to let her share with the community what she had learned. The village elders allowed her to speak only to the younger men of the village, but none of the men were interested in listening to her. "No girl had been courageous enough before to challenge the status quo, to challenge men," according to Douglas Meritei, one of those men. Len'ete would not give up, and kept trying to speak to the younger men for the next two years. Eventually, the elders of the village told the young men to sit with her, but only three of those men would speak to her. "Gradually, more of the younger men came to talk with her, she said, and gradually the topics expanded — from H.I.V. prevention to teenage pregnancy and its health complications, to early marriage, to school attrition and, finally, to the cut." "Leng'ete's work as a project officer with Amref Health Africa has saved an estimated 15,000 girls from FGM, as well as from childhood marriage."

Leng’ete continues work with Amref Health Africa to educate young people about sexual and reproductive health and rights. "Even though Kenya outlawed the cut in 2011 and the Maasai people abandoned it in 2014, the law is difficult to enforce, especially in rural communities. Leng’ete’s work is critical to spreading the message about FGM. “We need to reach more political leaders, more elders, more women, more men, more boys, more girls, more circumcisers,” Leng’ete says. “We need to reach more people through community dialogue and working together.”

She is the author of a memoir, The Girls in the Wild Fig Tree: How I Fought to Save Myself, My Sister, and Thousands of Girls Worldwide, published by Little, Brown And Company in 2021.

Awards and recognition 2015: Inspirational Woman of the Year Award from the Kenyan Ministry of Devolution 2018: Recognized as one of 300 global youth leaders by Women Deliver 2022: Laureate Freedom from Want Award