Wife inheritance among the Luo

KennethJuror | Kenya

When this topic was brought out in one of the consultative forum discussing the gains made in the fight against HIV/AIDS elimination in the country. It was discussed with sheer arrogance and ignorance as many who attended did not quite understand. However, in every culture there is something that stands out which makes a cultural practice unique – unique in its beliefs, values and traditions.

After burial 

In the Luo cultural practice, after a wife has buried her husband she is then given time to mourn her departed husband later on she will choose an inheritor among her brothers-in-law who is married. He is referred to as Jater. He had to be married as being an inheritor was a preserve for those who are only married.

Before news was issued to the would be Jater, she (widow) would seek approval from the Jater’s wife of her intention to be inherited, on very rare cases would a man refuse. But if the widow does not find a suitable Jater among the brother’s-in-law then she can opt for a stranger – one who is not a relative, such a person is called Jak owiny.  Jak owiny would however not get approval of the clan members as it was viewed as an attempt to commercialize wife inheritance.

Reasons and the present world of HIV/AIDS

· Continue family lineage of the dead. A kid born in such a union if a boy he will be called the departed husband’s name and if a girl then the mother of the deceased.   

· The inheritor was to chair – go kom piny, dowry negotiations of the deceased children and more over gonyo dhok – issuing out cows to the son of the deceased as part of dowry payment. This was seen as a blessing and a preserve of men only. A woman cannot gonyo dhok.

· He was to protect and take care of the widow because the clan was wary of unchaste women.

The widow was to be inherited because if she does not then she cannot till land as tilling land was done by couples so if one is not present then she cannot do it alone until when she is inherited. 

These were very noble sage ways that constitutes culture which presently is misunderstood as many go for it to squander wealth left behind. It has further led to many deaths from HIV/AIDS but ideally it was for the common good of all in the society.  

On the other hand culture cannot be comparable nor looked at under the lens of your own culture. Each of our cultures should idyllically be understood and appreciated exclusively as the more we open up and be interested in knowing our various cultures the less prejudices we have ultimately move towards being a national/global citizen.

The youth and the vote

Kenneth Juror | Kenya    
      
How many of us are going to vote in the coming general elections?

I ask this in light with the recently concluded by-elections, Kangema, Kajiado North, Ndhiwa and several wards across the country, to which there was high voter apathy with constituencies like Kangema registering a paltry 33% of the registered voters.

As J. F. Kennedy once said ask not what your country can do for you but rather what you can do for your country. This quote is not far from us if only we vote and not just vote but wisely do it as this is one of the surest ways of what we can do for our motherland moreover, fulfill our democratic mandate.

Generational Change

 In the course of this week I asked a pertinent question; who in this current parliament has articulated the youth’s agenda? I however did not get an answer yet we constitute more than 50% of the total population. We can boast of being many in number whereas our ideas and aspirations cannot be concretized and therefore blur our own vision as well as blow our chances of electing one or several of our own as the old order’s divide and rule policy prevails to our disadvantage.

We are the ones who talk of a high rate of unemployment with a dysfunctional government that is not responsive to the youth’s agenda not to mention the number of times we have fought each other as bwana mkubwa fans and bankrolls the violence/clashes. We end up killing, maiming and raping at a cost of Sh200/= or even less. In addition, we viciously fight for Bwana Mkubwa who is to be a Mheshimiwa then later on sober up to start yelling atop our voices for generational change in leadership yet we do not accept one of our own or simply dismiss a fellow youth on his/her financial incapability.

Simple appeal  

I must commend the private sector and non-governmental organizations (USAid, UKAid,Inuka Kenya, NMG among others) for stepping down the pedal in advocacy for leadership, perhaps we may get a new crop of leaders. A leadership that is responsive to its citizens not a government that threatens its workers with a sack if they do not get back to work.

Can a government still call itself legitimate yet it cannot listen to its workers? Then, to whose interest is it working for or serving?   

 “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich” J.F Kennedy

I therefore wish to tell my fellow youth that the change that we have wished for is purely and squarely in our own hands. We can change this social and economic ills bedeviling our country through the strong power of the vote and not merely voting but ultimately vote wisely.  

Teachers, Doctors, Lecturers… down tools as MP’s clamor for more pay

Kenneth Juror | Kenya 

The whole education system has been thrown to the dogs not to mention the health sector. This is the worrisome situation that our two critical sectors have reached. Three weeks after opening schools teachers in primary and secondary schools have not commenced the shortest term of the primary and secondary academic curriculum. 

Negotiated Government

We expected the government to listen keenly to all those agitating for pay hikes as the same government that refuses to engage them (teachers, doctors e.tc) came about after a negotiation. This was due to a protracted post poll violence that led to more than 1,300 dead. 

Many a times it is very demoralizing that a Kenyan worker would go to the extent of issuing a strike notice for the government to come to the negotiating table, ideally a strike notice is the last thing after talks have hit a dead end. It is equally appalling that the same government would issue sack threats at the same time negotiating. 

Does the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development work? Why should Hon. John Munyes continue drawing a salary?   

Imminent MP’s pay hike

A month ago the Speaker of the National Assembly Hon. Kenneth O. Marende insisted that MP’s were not well remunerated. I should perhaps remind Mr. Speaker that they earn 200 times more than the country’s GDP per person – comparative to purchasing power parity. Kenya is as well not a developed country to warrant such a colossal figure. Remember that this is the same group that was accused by Ikolomani MP, Bonny Khalwale that they outstretch themselves to bribes of as low as Sh 30,000. 

A fortnight ago Permanent Sectaries received an increase on their allowances ranging from Sh 10,000 to 40,000. However, the communication workers union and COTU have issued strike notices if the Minister for Medical Services increases its member’s contribution to the National Hospital Insurance kitty, what is the raison d'être? Yet he cannot resolve the doctors’ salary and allowance dispute? Nurses may also join them this week.   

It is funny that NHIF contributions are arbitrarily increased where as we may not get the services if the doctors and nurses demands are not met. So why increase? 

Does CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) work these days?

The gains made on the “cut”

Kenneth Juror | Kenya

On my last blog I indicated that I will perhaps try to elucidate the gains made in as far as male circumcision in Luo-Nyanza is concerned. 

My previous blog the Luo initiation rite

The male circumcision popularly known as the Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision Programme (VMMCP) in the health circles has had its share of successes and demerits in combating HIV/AIDS. 

Double digit prevalence rate

The HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in Luo-Nyanza is double the national rate. Nationally, the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate stands at 6.3% with Nyanza at 13.9% with some parts having high prevalence rate as high as 27% - Suba district being an example. With this in mind then it was only sage to circumcise the men so as to reduce the chances of HIV/AIDS infection. Studies have indicatively shown that the human foreskin tissue is highly susceptible to uptake of HIV, circumcision therefore reduces the chances of genital ulcer disease and infection with papilloma virus, the agent that causes penile cancer in men and cervical cancer in female partners of uncircumcised men. Chamydia infection – which can cause infertility – is also more common in the female partners of uncircumcised men. 

The community leaders in Luo-Nyanza have played a cogal role in advocating and sensitizing its populace to go for the cut which has greatly been accepted by both the young and the old and thus go in for it in their droves. Women have also played a vital role in ensuring their men go for the cut.

Dancing on their graves

There is however a silent worrisome trend among the circumcised youth which negates the gains made in the fight towards reduction of new HIV/AIDS infections. 

During funerals there is usually thum – village dance usually organized at night. It is simply keeping vigil. While at the dance the youth engage in excessive consumption of alcohol and abuse of drugs such as bhang.  This disproportionate uptake impairs their judgment and there after engage in unprotected sexual intercourse with multiple partners within a night. I would analogize this by; perhaps the person whom they (youth) are mourning may have died of HIV/AIDS then while they mourn in the best way they know they engage in unprotected sexual escapades that puts them in the same danger line as the deceased. Perchance they are oblivious that they are dancing on their graves. There are some parts of Luo-Nyanza than has imposed a total ban on thum. 

It is however great to note that Kenya as a country leads in the number of circumcisions done in Africa, with this in mind then we may reach our set target, by WHO and UNAIDS, where by an estimated 4 million adults infections will be averted by 2015.

Sources:

Kenya Demographic Health Survey     

National Guidance for Voluntary male Circumcision

The Luo’s initiation rite

Kenneth Juror | Kenya 

We may have seen individuals who do not have six lower teeth notably, the people’s watchman, Martin Shikuku. The gap was not only for a selected community but others have gaps though not as big as removal of the six lower teeth, perhaps one or two, which is a story for another day.

Today however, I will attempt to elucidate the procedure of how the Luos underwent their initiation; removal of the six lower teeth.

Initiation age    

  

Boys and girls who were between the ages of 12-15 qualified for this age-old-initiation-rite which was to be a gigantic event.

The initiate knelt facing the extractor who was armed with a sharp-pointed-end of a hoe, no anesthetic was used. The sharp end was forced in between the middle of the incisors. Once the first middle tooth had been removed, the remaining incisors on both sides will have been shaken loose. As the hoe was being forced in between the lower dentition, a hole was dug next to the initiate for spitting blood flowing freely from the gum.

Potassium Permanganate       

The five remaining teeth were hand extracted. The aftermath was not a sight to look at as the holes on the gum were gaping and quite frightening. Potassium permanganate was then poured on the holes so as to cure and more over sterilize the gum. The excruciating pain experienced during the process signified the rite of passage from childhood to adulthood on the other hand use of potassium did not make the situation any better as its reaction with saliva made the whole process quite agonizing.

Dr. Gikonyo Ndiuini, a dentist in Eldoret once told me that the procedure was more painful than the cut practiced these days! However, I would not wish to go into the debate on which is more painful to the other. This initiation ceremony has nevertheless been relegated as the cut is presently practiced.

The cut is however not practiced as an alternative rite of passage of the Luo and the other non-circumcising communities but rather an embraced medical procedure that reduces the chances of HIV/AIDS and cancer of the cervix infections.

I will cover the voluntary male circumcision in Nyanza in my subsequent blog.      

The security apparatus is a shell!

Kenneth Juror | Kenya 

President Mwai Kibaki launched a peace conference that marked two years since the promulgation of the new constitution. As he launched the peace conference in Bomas, a Muslim cleric was killed by unknown assailants in Mombasa. Aboud Rogo Mohammed, he is accused of being an Al-Shaabab supporter and also on the United Nation’s and the United States’ sanction list. 

As news spread of his death than the youth spread on the Mombasa streets protesting against his death causing pandemonium, looting and destroying two churches, it should however not take a religious twist but Rogo’s case be dealt with as a criminal offense. This incident and many more unpleasant insecurity incidences happening in this country should not only be condemned in the strongest terms possible but action is equally wanted.

Last week’s bloodbath witnessed in Coast and North Eastern provinces is not anything to write home about in as far as our security is concerned. It is very unfortunate that what could have been amicably resolved took a political twist that a community is using the mis-understanding to “reduce” voters of the other. This scenario subsequently means that the opponent community would have fewer voters denying them a chance to propel one of their own to the governor, senate, Member of Parliament, women and county representatives’ positions. It is worrying that the provincial administration and internal security officials are always full of rhetoric with the same old colloquial “we are in hot pursuit of the assailants, we will crack the whip...”

Such situations make me miss the former president who never allowed such occurrences to continue as law and order would be restored within no time however much he had his flaws.

As I write this I could not stop thinking of how a bleak insecure country we are in. A country that its people are getting killed and killing each other as the security personnel take sides in the battle yet they took an oath to serve the Republic and the mwananchi regardless of their ethnicity, race, political affiliation and protection of their property, further explained in their motto utumishi kwa wote . Sorry if I sound like a naysayer but if the status quo remains then there will be no more modus operandi in this country as 2007/8 PEV would appear as boyish-war!

Let us maintain peace, shun intolerance, obey the rule of law, the judicial wheel is spinning, as we march towards the general election.

What do we gain if not lose by stifling the economic gains made in five years and erode it in days through civil unrest? I remember constable Mathenge’s words as he quelled irate youth “Hii Kenya yetu tumeijenga kwa miaka mingi mbona tunataka kuiharibu in one day?