Kikuyu people
Between 1929 and 1932, Protestant missionaries campaigned against the practice of female genital mutilation , and were met with resistance primarily by the Kikuyu. Lynn M. Thomas, an American historian, writes that during the female circumcision controversy, the issue of female genital mutilation became a focal point of the movement campaigning for independence from British rule, and a test of loyalty—either to the Christian churches of the missionaries, or to the Kikuyu Central Association, the largest association of the Kikuyu people.