As Circumcision ceremony for the Bukusu community nears, calls have been made to the circumcisers not to force people who don’t perform the rite by circumcising them forcefully.
Speaking this at Minyali village in Kiminini Sub County, the council elder for traditions in Trans Nzoia county Peter Masinde urged circumcisors and the Luhya community to practice decorum and uphold the rule of law by not forcing other tribes that don’t practice the rite to do what they don’t believe in.
“I want to urge all circumcisers not to forcefully circumcise those people who don’t believe in the rite and warn them that anyone who will be found administering it will be prosecuted according to the law”, said Masinde.
He urged them to observe hygiene as they undertake their work requesting them to visit medical clinics within the county so that the clinics can help to offer services necessary for the occasion.
He added that owing to cultural decay, most people have embraced the western culture and forgotten their practices.
He stated that various ills that are not in the African culture have sprouted up hence parents and the old have found it hard to advise the young generations on the dangers of following the western culture blindly.
His sentiments were echoed by the chairman of circumcisers John Juma chemiati , who appealed to his colleagues to observe the necessary rules and guidelines for the practice during the season.
Among the rules is abstaining from engaging in other cultural practices like going to funerals, digging graves and selling meat in butcheries which he said is not allowed during this season.
He also appealed to them to avoid giving educative lessons to those children circumcised in hospitals saying that doing that is disastrous to the culture of the community as it was not acceptable before.
He challenged them to avoid being coerced by the parents who have taken their children to hospitals to teach them culture as this was against the spirit of their work and unacceptable to the culture.
He continued to enlist several precautions that need to be followed including abstaining from sex for the season saying that this will make their work to be easier.
He revealed that this guidelines are to keep them pure as their work is a calling and needs to be respected and went ahead to compare it to soldiers going into war.
“This work is like going to war, we have to remain pure and do what is necessary so as to avoid being on the wrong side of culture,” he said.
The event also saw the initiators and knives anointed. According to Mr. Juma, the initiator had to meet certain qualifications before being given the privilege to circumcise.”To be an initiator one has to belong to the family of initiators and has to have undergone the traditional cut himself,” he noted.
Those boys who were to be circumcised and had circumcision spirits were treated using several herbs during the event.
The initiator should be married and with children, possess acceptable manners in the society, not have engaged in criminal activities and be of sound mind n order to qualify and be of good virtues to his neighbours.
He is not allowed to circumcise the son of his age set (Bakoki) because they both were initiated in the same year and there is respect to be observed which entails that it is like the father circumcising his son.
He added that special attention is to be given to the knives ‘chingembe’ that are used in circumcision with a special tree”kumukimila” used in fixing the knives.
The tree is important as per the name, kumukimilia, which means culture and is essential for the whole system of the initiation and is respected by the community.
No other tree is used in fixing the knives, any initiator found to have fixed the knife on a wrong tree is penalized for having gone against the culture of the circumcisers and was stopped from performing the act.
The circumciser should not circumcise the dead and if found doing that, he is stopped from doing the work as they are not allowed to circumcise the dead and still continue circumcising boys that are alive.
This is against the tradition as the dead cant share a platform with the living.
if it happens that a man who has not been circumcised dies, he is allowed to be circumcised before being sent to grave and the one to do so is a the circumciser who has retired from circumcising boys.
In the event that the circumciser stumbles over and fallsdown with his knife while going to circumcise a boy, he is not allowed to proceed with his work and another one is replaced immediately as this is seen as a bad omen for him and his duties of circumcision are stopped.
He added that in the event that someone died in a home where a son was going to be circumcised, the boy would be circumcised first before the funeral arrangements in the home commences.
Juma added that for the mother to tend to the circumcised boy, she ought to have completed all the cultural practices including dowry payments before being allowed to do so
He also called upon them to remain united and appreciate each other’s work to avoid acts of unhealthy competition of circumcising boys which he said has been going on in the past bringing rivalry and bad blood among them.
He said the purpose of launching circumcision in the area was to familiarize them with the current regulations which provides that they ought to have information concerning their health especially during their work as well as know each other as a way of trying to uphold trust of the parents of the boys to be circumcised.
John Barasa, a circumciser, said that they chose to perform the ritual at the shrine known as “Namwima” as a way of appeasing ancestors who will take great care of them during the rest of the season as they undergo their practices.
He divulged that a white cockerel was slaughtered at the shrine as a way of asking their god to help them have good eye vision during the whole practice and it was roasted and only fed to the circumcisers at the function. No one else is allowed to feast on it.
The function which was dubbed “khubita chingembe”, giving advice about circumcision knives was attended by more than 40 circumcisers who received information on how they should relate during this season of circumcision