05/24/08

KENYA:  Male Circumcision Gains Ground as Anti-AIDS Weapon

The roll-out of the first free circumcision project in Kenya has become ensnared in the country's ongoing political struggle.

A study by Dr. Robert Bailey of the University of Illinois found that HIV infection rates in Kisumu, western Kenya, were reduced by 60 percent among males who were circumcised. Bailey is now spearheading free circumcision at public health facilities across Kenya. Similar projects are running in Swaziland, Rwanda, and Zambia, countries where male circumcision is not customary for much of the population.

But the issue of male circumcision became entangled in the violence that resulted from the disputed presidential election last December. Supporters of President Mwai Kibaki, whose Kikuyu tribe circumcises its men, clashed with those backing opposition leader Raila Odinga, who is a Luo, a tribe that does not circumcise. After Odinga's rivals publicly said he was not a complete man, many Luo were forcibly circumcised in the violence, which has since subsided.

The resulting power-sharing government, with Odinga as prime minister, is wary of taking a public stance on circumcision, said Bailey. The free program's launch was initially delayed. Although the Luo council of elders has not forbidden the practice outright, they note it is contrary to their traditions, and they worry it could promote promiscuity.

Source: Associated Press:: Katharine Houreld; Courtesy of the CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention