Kumi leaders clarify on medical circumcision

By Lawrence Ilakut  

KUMI - The district health officer of Kumi district has strongly defended the safe male circumcision programme against people trying to discredit it.

Dr. John Opolot says the programme is purely scientific and is one of the strategies the government designed to reduce chances of people contracting HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Opolot’s statement follows claims by some sections of the public that safe male circumcision is a family planning method meant to reduce the population while others assert that it is intended to lessen men’s sexual urge.

But Dr. Opolot says the public should treat these assertions as false and instead embrace the programme.

 In a similar development.

The district khadi of Kumi has also issued a statement clarifying the position of Islam on the government’s safe male circumcision programme.

Sheik Haruna Emuge, the district, khadhi Kumi says contrary to suggestions that the programme is meant to indirectly influence people to join the Islamic faith, no Muslim leader is collaborating with the government to influence people to join Islam.

He says it is wrong for some members of the public to assert that the government was using the programme to convert people to Islam.