NCFM NOTE: Did you know that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was spending millions of dollars in Africa promoting male circumcision in the wrongful belief their effort will stem the transmission of various diseases? If true, why not promote clitoral circumcision? Or…did you know that removed foreskins are worth their weight in gold and used to make cosmetics for women? Think about it…
Excellent work Mr. Owino!
By Kennedy Owino, Director of Intact Kenya
Intact Kenya was set up to raise awareness that all sexes have equal rights to their own bodies, to advocate for fully informed consent for adult men wanting circumcision in response to the massive voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) campaign, to create awareness that children have a basic right to reach adulthood with all of their genitals intact and for them to have autonomy over their own bodies. At Intact Kenya, we believe that all human beings, regardless of age, sex, gender, ethnicity, size, background, family or ability to defend themselves, come into this world with the basic human right to genital autonomy, that is, to make personal decisions about what happens to their genitals in the absence of medical necessity.
In Africa, proponents of male circumcision have used all sorts of tactics to make their target clients perceive circumcision ostensibly as a medical intervention. They base their rationale on a series of flawed Random Controlled Trials (RCTs) that were conducted in three African States, after which male circumcision was given the green flag to undermine more realistic strategies to prevent HIV and AIDS, such as being faithful and consistent condom use.
The tactics
Vulnerable Africans have been brainwashed by the whitewashed circumcision information they receive from the VMMC campaign team. Women with intact partners have been exposed to the cervical cancer charade in order to convince their partners to surrender themselves for circumcision. Young men and women have been given circumcision information smothered with hygiene benefits. And with regard to teenage boys, the coercion has been wrapped up in enticements of free soft drinks, biscuits, loaves of bread and clothing.
The ever financially muscular circumcision brigade has gone farther afield to circumcise newborn babies borne by gullible mothers, unceasingly proclaiming that it is better to circumcise babies because they heal faster from the circumcision surgery. Astonishingly, this classes male circumcision as the only surgical procedure performed on babies exclusively on the basis that it takes them less time to heal.
The consent form
When circumcision consent forms are issued, either in English or Swahili, in most cases they are frivolous and only offer very few details, ignoring the legal doctrine of informed consent. The forms do not show whether the children in question consent to be submitted to the procedure or if their parents/guardians or representatives have been fully informed and understand what VMMC is, how it is done, its benefits, its risks, its alternatives or what to do before and after VMMC. Nor do they contain an emergency contact number and information about where to go in an emergency, or why it is important to still use condoms after VMMC. Strangely, in fact, the imperative word ‘circumcision’ is glaringly absent from these forms.
The ongoing epidemic
Mass male circumcision was brought to the table to help avert the disaster of HIV and AIDS, which have ravaged several African countries. But over a decade since VMMC was rolled out in 14 Sub-Saharan African countries, HIV and AIDS still remain an epidemic in the continent, wiping out both the intact and circumcised populace. In fact, the majority of doctors in Africa genuinely do not believe in circumcision as a preventive tool in combating HIV infections in Africa, not least because many circumcised men have fallen victims to the scourge.
Disturbingly, HIV and AIDS is no longer simply a disease, but a multi-billion dollar cesspit of corruption, essentially funded by the United States, a nation which, while correlation does not imply causation, ironically has one of the highest HIV prevalences in the Western world despite having the highest rate of male circumcision.
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Read more about VMMC in Africa in The VMMC Experience Project’s report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
Thank you for continuing to shed light on this disgusting practice. I would encourage everyone to pressure candidates in the upcoming elections to take a firm stand against this blatantly misandrist campaign. Urgent political action is needed to prevent yet another generation of boys from being subjected to this horror.