The Bukusu community in Western Kenya have officially began their traditional circumcision for boys, the exercise that normally happen in every eve year despite hot political temperatures and the Covid -19 pandemic.
According to the elders from the region, the exercise is meant for teenage boys to become men “This is the important rite of passage for our boys and it’s the only way we can approve them to join the club or real men,” said Wycklife Wafula who is a traditional circumciser adding that despite this electioneering period the exercise had to be practiced.
The exercise is set to last for an official period of one month, this August the time the country is headed for the General Elections.
Some of the elders from the region had initially requested to postpone the rituals citing that the exercise could go on during the tough time of Corona Virus a proposal that was highly opposed by a section of traditional circumcisers.
In Manani village, Bumula Constituency of Bungoma County, hundreds of villagers converged to mark the ritual where boys in a kind of celebrations including local brew consumption known as busaa.
The rite of circumcision is normally done by untrained men (omlusanya) who believes that the ability to performing the operation is inherited or passed on from one generation to the other in a particular clan (kumusambwa).
This year’s rituals comes amid 2022 General Elections and the Covid-19 pandemic which has forced majority of families not to do it the traditional way as some of them narrate how the tough economic situation has hit the country.
By Thadeus Wachiye