THE HORRIBLE TRIBAL CIRCUMCISION THAT GOES ON IN KENYA[SEE PHOTOS]

These pictures show frightened girls lined up before villagers in Kenya to be circumcised - even though the brutal practice is now illegal in the country.

But in many African tribes, traditions are more important than laws and circumcision is considered a rite of passage that marks their transition into womanhood so they can marry.  

At its most extreme, circumcision, also known as female genital mutilation, involves cutting off the clitoris and external genitalia, then stitching the vagina to reduce a woman's sexual desire. Anything from razor blades to broken glass and scissors is used. 

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 Reuters photographer Siegfried Modola captured this ceremony in rural Kenya for four teenage girls of the Pokot tribe, in Baringo County.
Draped in animal skin and covered in white paint, the girls squat over large stones in the remote village after being circumcised - a life-threatening custom banned in the country three years ago.

More than a quarter of Kenyan women have undergone the ordeal, despite government efforts to end the practice in the East African country.
'It's a tradition that has been happening forever,' the father of one of the girls, who asked not to be named fearing reprisal from the authorities, told Reuters from the isolated Pokot settlement some 80km from the town of Marigat.
'The girls are circumcised to get married. It's a girl's transition into womanhood,' he said.

 The U.N.'s Children's Fund, UNICEF, says more than 125 million women have been cut in the 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East where genital mutilation is carried out. Kenyan law provides for life imprisonment when a girl dies from the procedure, which in addition to excruciating pain, can cause haemorrhage, shock and complications in childbirth.

Officials are optimistic they can force a change in attitude but still worry that the practice is too ingrained for legal threats to have an impact.