Re: Why Bantu men like Michoma Douglass Moenga are complaining about the luos circumcision ?

Rev. Okoth Otura & Dr. P. Okoth,

It seems like the moment you saw the word circumcision in my posting, you went into overdrive to find some tough arguments about why circumcision should not be a factor in politics. If that is what the argument was about, then the points you make would be valid. I actually share those views with you 100%.

But, my friends, the point I made was not that circumcision or no circumcision has a bearing on one's leadership abilities. Circumcision or no circumcision will not make a person a good, a bad or a no leader. Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe is uncircumcised. See what has become of what was once the breadbasket of Africa. Kenyatta, Moi and now Kibaki have all been circumcised. But we have much to criticise them.

Now, my friends, stop spewing unnecessary venom over something that I have not said. The gist of my proposition was that CUSTOMARY CIRCUMCISION HAS BEEN AND IS STILL A POTENT POLITICAL CONSIDERATION AT THE VOTING BOOTH IN THE PARTS OF KENYA WHERE IT IS PRACTICED. It is just a recognition of reality, not a justification for it.

Those of us from communities that perform the practice have told our kith and kin in small and big ways that they should put away stereotypes based on archaic customs, especially when it comes to voting. We come back and report that although things are changing, the stereotypes still do exist and people vote based on those stereotypes. My friends, how does it help us if by reporting the obvious facts you jump on us and tell us that since people in the villages we ail from still vote in old ways, so we too are the same?

Dr. Okoth: I would have hoped that since you are in Nairobi and closer to the ground, you would say that in Kiambu and Meru and Machakos and Kajiado and Kapsabet and Kakamega and Kisii and Kehancha, etc, people have changed their voting attitudes and will now not vote based on stereotypes regarding circumcision. Instead, you jump at me for saying that in 2007, that status quo vis-a-vis circumcision and voting is what it was in 1992 and 1997 and 2002.

Rev. Otura: With all due respect to you as a man of the cloak, it is a shame that you too can use words such as homosexual in such a misplaced manner. Readers will make a determination of whether what you are saying is appropriate.

May I append the offending paragraph here below for you to again look at and analyze. Then tell me where I have said what you are trying pin on me.

A ticket with Hon. Raila Odinga at its head will most likely lose purely on the ground of circumcision or lack thereof. I do not subscribe to the notion that this is enough to deny Raila the presidency of Kenya. We may intellectually debate why circumcision is irrelevant. We will conclude that it sure is irrelevant. However, the reality on the ground in many parts of Kenya is such that circumcision or lack thereof is a make-or-break political consideration. People all over Kenya see Raila as presidential material. However, they will withhold their vote from Raila purely over circumcision and his Luo ethnicity

Michoma Douglass Moenga