Kenya: Forced Male Circumcision and a Struggle for Justice

Somewhat tastelessly, there is a link on the page to a completely unrelated January 2011 magazine section article entitled "More on circumcision: The Kindest Cut" about HIV/AIDS and mass circumcision in Swaziland, presumably to down-play the grotesqueness of this article. Link here. Excerpt:

'Similar attacks were recorded elsewhere in Kibera and in other parts of the country, including the volatile Rift Valley, up until late February 2008, when Kibaki and Odinga reached a power-sharing deal. The lack of reporting on the part of victims, however, has complicated efforts to arrive at a national total. A government inquiry noted, for instance, that many victims in the Rift Valley were "too traumatized" to come forward.

While Odondi and some other Luos, a tribe that doesn't traditionally practice male circumcision, can describe their individual experiences of forced circumcision with marked candor, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is still struggling to find words for the crime. Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who is pursuing crimes against humanity charges against six prominent Kenyans in connection with the post-election crisis, moved in December to charge the crime under "other forms of sexual violence," the category used for atrocities such as sexual slavery and forced prostitution.

But judges disagreed, ruling in March that the crime should fall under "other inhumane acts," a separate category of crimes that cause "great suffering" or "serious injury to body or to mental or physical health."
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Despite the ingrained discrimination -- and periodic bouts of violence -- targeting uncircumcised men in some areas, the issue receives little public attention. "No one has ever talked about male circumcision. It's just not visible," Wangechi said.

Ocampo can present new evidence about forced male circumcision during the 2007 and 2008 crisis at confirmation hearings scheduled for September. Wangechi said a subsequent decision by judges to reclassify forced male circumcision as a form of sexual violence "would have a huge impact" on how the crime is viewed in Kenya, and could perhaps draw widespread attention to it for the first time. With this heightened attention, she added, could come expanded access to treatment at health centers, provided the government begins to fully grasp "the magnitude of the assault."'