A three-month male circumcision campaign starts in Nyanza today, targeting men in Homa Bay, Kisumu, Migori and Siaya.
The Ministry of Health says male circumcision will reduce HIV prevalence in the region.
A Kenya Aids Response Progress 2018 report released by Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki showed that Siaya leads in HIV prevalence at 21 per cent followed by Homa Bay (20.7 per cent), Kisumu (16.3 per cent) and Migori (13.3 per cent).
The voluntary exercise will be conducted by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
Research has shown that male circumcision reduces the chances of contracting HIV by 60 per cent.
During the campaign, the government will also verify its data on the number of males already circumcised from the region.
Regional HIV-Aids and STIs coordinator Iscar Amoth, Homa Bay health chief officer Gerald Akeche and health director Gordon Okomo said on Friday that the government intends to tackle the spread of HIV through male circumcision.
Amoth urged Luo men to be circumcised and to ignore fallacies about male circumcision.
“I understand the obstacles we’ll be facing when undertaking the exercise. We’ll go against a cultural practice but I appeal to men from the Luo community to accept to be circumcised to reduce the spread of HIV infection,” she said.
Nyanza counties lead in HIV-Aids prevalence nationally.
Voluntary Male Circumcision programmes started in Nyanza in 2008.
“We have seen positive changes since the VMC. The rate of new HIV infections is reducing, hence men should turn up to be circumcised,” Amoth said.
Akeche asked Luo men to be circumcised to stop the spread of HIV-Aids.
He said they had involved Luo elders ahead of the exercise.
“The male circumcision we’re conducting this time is inclusive since elders are involved. We must reduce the trend of HIV infections. Men should go for the cut,” Akeche said.
Okomo said more than 289 people have been trained to undertake the door-to-door campaign in Homa Bay county.
He at the same time urged residents to continue using condoms during sexual intercourse.
“We know circumcision is voluntary where only willing men attend but we really appeal to our men not to resist the exercise,” Okomo said.
