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Why I did not undergo circumcision — Oburu Odinga

County_Nairobi
 

Nominated MP Oburu Oginga said he would be circumcised in 2008

but that was not to be

Nominated MP Oburu Oginga said he would be circumcised in 2008 but that was not to be. At the time he was the assistant Finance Minister and alongside his brother, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga had spearheaded a campaign for men to heed the call for Voluntary Male Circumcision in Luo Nyanza.

Speaking at the Tom Mboya Labour College Oburu told a cheering crowd: “I am going to be cut next week. I am assuring you I will go, no matter how painful it will be.”

Luo men were then not circumcised as a way of ushering them into adulthood. They got six lower teeth dispensed with instead. But medical research indicated that circumcised men had a 60 percent chance of not contracting sexually transmitted diseases and hence the campaign in the face of Luo Nyanza also suffering some of the highest prevalence of HIV/Aids in the country.

Oburu told the crowd that September 2008: “We cannot cling to repugnant traditions for years while our people die at an alarming rate of HIV/Aids-related diseases. It is wrong, we must change.”

Oburu opened to The Nairobian on reasons why he never faced the knife after the rally. He said during a phone interview: “When I presented myself for the cut, I was not allowed to go on because I am diabetic and the doctor advised that it would not be prudent to do so.” 

Despite being more hygienic than being uncircumcised the campaigners faced several setbacks and Oburu recalls that “When we launched the campaigns, we faced challenges from our elders who said it was against the Luo culture, but we decided to go on with the exercise as it would benefit our people.” 

Oburu stated that Luo elders should allow those who still have powerful guns and can still shoot bullets to face the knife even as he remembered the teasing from other communities who labelled them ‘kihi’ and ‘abanyol’, meaning uncircumcised in Kikuyu and Luhya respectively, while they called their circumcised neigbours ‘rayuombe’ (circumcised).

Heath experts argue that a diabetic person take longer to heal from open wounds and circumcision can complicate matters.

Kisumu County Health Chief Officer Dr Ojwang Lusi however said that there were fewer men over 25 years of age going for the services. “Another challenge was that very few women were involved, but we undertook operational research studies on how to sustain the programme efficiently and effectively,” he said.

The second phase of the circumcision implementation will run from 2014 to 2019 is targeting over one million men countrywide.

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