AIDS in Kenya

Barry Paul Miruka
Kenya - 05/01/2005
  As the USA continue with their great war against terrorism, Sub-Saharan Africa has not shown any disparity, but in the fight against HIV/AIDS. There are no diseases that Africans better understand the names of than malaria and AIDS. Even though their fight against these diseases, especially AIDS, has not given rise to strong acclaim, some countries such as Uganda have made a great step of achievement in reducing HIV/AIDS prevalence, through their great warriors such as Philly Bongoley Lutaya. Lutaya is a Ugandan singer who contracted HIV and was the first African to go public over his HIV/AIDS status. His position in the fight against HIV/AIDS has brought to the Ugandan public different notions; at some moment he was sent out of his country but later the Ugandan people accepted the existence of the disease and joined him in the fight and called him back home. At that time, Uganda is at the top of the list among all countries of the world with a high HIV/AIDS prevalence. AIDS was then noticed to be prevailing in African countries such as Kenya, South Africa, Zambia, and Congo amongst others.

It was therefore believed that barmaids that served in Kisumu Kenya and of Ugandan Gisu origin spread this disease from Uganda to Kenya because they too served as commercial sex workers. In Kisumu people believed that sex work and bartending by women was a work left only to the Gisu people, primarily known as Wagisu. Kisumu is one of Kenya's biggest town and so close to the Kenya - Uganda border.

In Kenya HIV/AIDS was first acknowledged in 1984 in Kisumu town. Currently Kenya remains among the top countries under the threat of HV/AIDS. Statistics show that 1.4 million women, 0.9 million men, and 0.22 million children are HIV/AIDS positive. In Kisumu town, in the Western part of Kenya, 26% of youths aged between 15 to 25 years are HIV/AIDS positive, among them 24% are ladies/women and the remaining 2% are men. It is therefore evident that young people in Kenya represent an increasingly large percentage of HIV/AIDS cases. Kenya in 2003 organized a world conference on HIV/AIDS that attracted several experts and different people from across the world. Kenya is also one of the top 15 countries in the US president’s emergency plan for AIDS relief.

CCFMC (Comprehensive Course on Franciscan Mission Charism) is one of the organizations implementing HIV/AIDS projects on different aspects in Western Kenya and based in Kisumu, where AIDS is believed to dominate. CCFMC supports HIV/AIDS orphans, widows and living HIV/AIDS victims, and carries out several awareness on HIV/AIDS and safer behavior activities in their Youth, AIDS and Behavioral Change Project where I personally work with youths. My five years’ experience in social work and especially in the HIV/AIDS field, I have learnt that Kenya has not done much to decrease the prevalence of HIV/AIDS because of some social and environmental factors, amongst them the poverty, cultural and traditional practices in some communities.

HIV/AIDS has left 1.9 million children orphans, half of whom are in the Western part of Kenya, known as the Lake Region. The elder orphans are forced to hurl down education in order to look for ways of supporting other siblings, and in some cases taking care of them, plus the remaining infected parent. In Kenya, about 40% of youths are either partial or total orphans. As families and communities struggle to cope with the impact of the illness and its increased mortality, nationally, the health care system is overwhelmed by the number of people in need of health care and treatment, and the development of the economy is slowed down by the decrease in the number of health adult workers and the increased incapacity to provide care to HIV affected people. UNAIDS has declared Kenyan schoolteachers to be one of the most infected groups in the world

My experience in the field of social work has proved to me that despite Kenya’s high percentage of 91 in awareness, social, economic and environmental factors have created a stumbling block in efforts to bring a positive and happy life style.

In relation to economic factors, some major examples are commercial sex work/prostitution. Some prostitutes say that they took up this type of work because they had no job and had to support the rest of their family. They charge their services according to the interest of their customers; some of their customers call for sex without condoms, which they tend to charge higher than sex with condoms. Unbelievably, HIV-infected people don’t understand the higher risks of the service and thus another person may get infected, who will spread it to several. Women are known to be more vulnerable to this known virus.

Kenya has more than 52 communities speaking different languages and of different practices and cultures. In Luo community, in western part of Kenya where AIDS has dominated, there are cultural practices that are associated with sex; an example is the custom of wife inheritance, which has led to a high prevalence of the virus in the region, despite several outreach efforts focusing on the dangers of the practice.

Alcohol and drug abuse on the other hand sounds to me as the major act that promotes risky behavior. Some ladies interviewed on how they got the virus explain that they got it in their very first sex encounter through rape by drunkards. Some people who have knowledge on HIV/AIDS and its prevention measures also end up with AIDS and explain that they contracted it when they were drunk and could not recall using condoms. As the government of Kenya continues with the fight on HIV/AIDS, they should fight it bearing in mind the high risks of drug and substance abuse.

The new government promised Kenyans before the 2002 election that they would create five thousand jobs every year, a promise which has not borne any fruit. I believe that the creation of these jobs could have contributed much to the reduction of HIV prevalence by putting idle youth minds into action and reducing the poverty which pushes ladies into prostitution. Recently the Kenyan police have raided prostitution bases in Nairobi and arrested many of them, many of whom were graduates or enrolled students at the Nairobi University, one of the best universities in Kenya.

The government of Kenya hasn’t done much to support youths that are exposed to higher risk factors; these youths represent about 64 percent of the Kenyan population, the remaining 36 percent being adults and children. Several youths have formed groups in Kenya to enable them to deal with the problems they encounter and to enable them to acquire life and problem solving skills and make informed decisions. Most of the youth groups are supported by organizations such as CCFMC, who support 34 youth groups. The youth groups use different methods of outreaching on HIV/AIDS. Some resort to puppetry, theatre arts, and sports. Nyawita safari troupe is a puppetry group under CCFMC that has done much in creating awareness and has assisted several organizations including UNAIDS.

Some groups have made films on HIV/AIDS. CCFMC have also given support to these groups, funding them to establish social entrepreneurship or income generating activities which support group members.

Finally HIV/AIDS is about three concepts: feeling, learning and experiencing. I personally have learned, felt and experienced my mother’s suffering and death of this disease.

Note: Anybody who wishes to know more on AIDS in Kenya can contact Barry Paul at barrypaul@kenyazones.com or through Talia Delgado of BRAINSTORMING.

Youth | Kenya | Reports