55 boys 'face the knife' behind bars

Kakamega Borstal institution, a facility for juvenile offenders, has circumcised 55 inmates in line with the customs of the local communities of initiating boys every two years.

Aphia Plus Western joined hands with the Shikusa Prison-based Borstal institution to circumcise the juvenile prisoners, who had received their parents’ consent.

“The initiates have been set apart in a separate dormitory so they can be nursed until they are fully healed. Ours is a medical, not the traditional form of circumcision,” said Borstal officer-in-charge Japheth Onchiri.

The correctional institution, which hosts 385 boys, circumcised the boys irrespective of tribe, provided their parents gave thier consent to the prison authorities.

“We did not bother to check what tribe they come from, we circumcised boys aged between 15-18 based on parental consent,” he said.

Onchiri said they took this step because the facility was established to do more than just issue correctional lessons. It is also expected to shape the inmates cultural aspects to enable them fit well in society after serving their sentence which is usually not more than three years.

Onchiri said the boys were happy to be part of the exercise because they joined the institution as boys and would now be leaving as reformed men.

Interior Principal Secretary Josephta Mukombe, who yesterday visited the boys and took a tour of the neighbouring Shikusa Farm Prison, congratulated the initiates for taking the bold step.

BECOMING MEN

“I salute your braveness in accepting to face the knife and become men. You should henceforth forego childish ways and behave like adults because you are now men,” Mukombe said.

There was a light moment when the PS asked the initiates to tell her the importance of being circumcised and one said: “So as to become a man.”

The PS jokingly interjected: “You mean you were a woman?” to the amusement of prison officers who were showing her around the facility.

And, as is the norm with circumcision rituals, you cannot visit initiates empty handed so the PS gifted them with bags of rice and cooking fat to mark the occasion.

Kenya has three such institutions: the Borstal school in Shimo la Tewa which serves the Coastal region, Borstal Kakamega and Kamiti Youth correctional Training Centre.

All of them are run by the Prisons Department.