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Anxiety has gripped Eldoret in Uasin Gishu after an estimated 30 children were forcefully circumcised by a non-governmental organisation based in Kisumu and which has a clinic in Eldoret.
The organisation is alleged to have performed the circumcision on the school-going children last week in various parts of Eldoret, when learners came home for the April recess.
The mood was tense Wednesday evening at Kapsoya Estate as mothers wailed uncontrollably after realising that their sons, some as young as six years old, were circumcised by the organisation without their consent.
Lucy Ekwong said she had gone to town but did not find her two sons upon arriving home in the evening.
She would later find out that they were nursing pain at a Sudanese neighbour’s house.
“I had gone to town, but when I came back in the evening, my two children, aged six and eight, were in my neighbour’s house.
LURED WITH SWEETS
“The younger one said they were offered sweets and taken to a clinic in Langas, where many boys were circumcised,†the bitter mother said.
“I was shocked but immediately took up to caring for them. I later talked to a police officer, who denied knowing of such an activity.
“I am so confused because the surgery itself is not according to the requirements of the Kalenjin traditions.
“My people in the village, upon learning of that, are accusing me of doing it on my sons,†said Ms Ekwong.
Some of the children were from the South Sudan Nuer community, which does not perform circumcision on their boys.
The community regards the act of circumcision as a taboo and anyone conducting it is banished.
Only two children, who were from the Islamic Centre, were Kalenjins while close to 30 others are from South Sudan.
A Sudanese national, Madol Anyief, said: “Our Dinka Bor community does not perform circumcision. Anyone who is circumcised is banished and disowned.
“It is said these people were going around saying the government has directed circumcision but we have later been assured that the county has no such programme,†Anyief said, adding that she did not question much because she was a foreigner and feared for her life.
According to reports corroborated by the circumcised boys, sweets were used by people who were in cars to lure them.
MORE THAN A HUNDRED
One of them said there were more than a 100 boys and that some were hiding in their homes.
Uasin Gishu County’s Chief Officer for Health, Mr Silas Boit, said the revelation came during a normal inspection at Kapsoya Health Centre on Tuesday when they met a young boy who was walking in pain.
“We asked further and we were told that there was a forceful circumcision that the NGO had conducted. The boy had a urinal retention complication due to the surgery,†Mr Boit said.
The health officer said they went around the estate and found over 30 other boys in pain in their various homes.
Some who were suspected to be developing infections were referred to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital for treatment.
Mr Boit said police arrested three officers from the NGO and booked then at Kapsoya Police Post.
Mr Boit said: “We were shocked after realising that the car in which the suspects had been arrested was released and was going around collecting the boys to ferry them to hospital,†Boit said.
He added that the OCS had promised to take the suspects to court.
Meanwhile, parents have been urged to keep a close watch on their children.
- Nation.co.ke
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@Mlachake, if all that you think is important for people to know about Vision 2030 is "compulsory circumcision by 2030" then you really don't know much about the Vision. I don't think compulsory circumcision is one of the pillars of Vision 2030. In any event, compulsory or voluntary circumcision is a decision best left to the parents - to circumcise boys at birth, 7 or 8 days after birth, or after siting KCPE as is the current practice in several communities in Kenya. Vision 2030 or no vision, no one has a right to abduct somebody's 6-year old boy and circumcise him without the knowledge of his parents or guardians. Oh by the way, Mlachake, there is something called constitution, bill of rights, and child protection law all of which are superior and supersede Vision 2030. Vision 2030 doesn't give anyone power to break the laws of the country nor violate anyone else's his/her constitutional civil rights.