The reality of AIDS in Kenya

Manning the office of the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya.


3 Images In Gallery
(click to view all)

Published: 04 December 2009

World AIDS Day on 1 December remains one of the only health days that is recognised globally.

Ninety per cent of new infections of HIV occur in poor countries, with 11,000 people infected every day. HIV has a tragic effect on these countries, hampering their economic development and leaving millions of children without parents.

Revd Henry Mayor reflects on a recent visit to Kenya where he encouraged churches to support people living with HIV and the victims of AIDS.

Janet Wasonga, a clergy widow, owns a brick-built, three-bedroom house in a substantial plot of land, only a few minutes’ walk from Lake Victoria. By local standards she is well off.

But she lives in Nyanza, the province with the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS in Kenya. All around her young adults are falling sick, almost every extended family looks after some orphans. Her own son died of AIDS; but before his death he set up HAWI, a network of groups for people living with HIV/AIDS, to ensure that they get testing, counselling, advice on healthy eating and access to antiretroviral drugs. Janet now runs it. Each group is encouraged to be self-supporting, but there’s very little money around.

James Nyagudi is a retired accounts officer, a widower and a lay reader. In his local church, a simple mud-walled, tin-roofed building, many orphans come together - those who after their parents died from AIDS and other diseases, live with relatives who can barely afford to feed, clothe and educate them. James and other parishioners offer them games, educational activities and a meal on Saturdays, and so their carers get a break. They began four years ago with their own funds, but rising prices and falling employment mean that they need outside help.

Evans Onyango (not his real name) is a gay man in Nyanza who thinks he may be HIV positive. He went to the local clinic where testing and drugs are available, but when he admitted he’d had male sexual partners they refused to treat him. This is common among gay and lesbian Kenyans. Same-gender sexual activity is illegal in Kenya, and most churches in Kenya fiercely condemn it; so sufferers don’t get what other people living with HIV/AIDS need to stay healthy and avoid infecting others.

Kenyan churches used to condemn as sinners those who had AIDS, and shunned them. But in 2006 Benjamin Nzimbi, Archbishop of Kenya, publicly apologised on behalf of Kenyan churches for this negative attitude, and urged Christians to fight the disease by loving those who carry it, and providing treatment. Janet’s network and James’s orphans’ group are examples of this.

If African churches can change their attitude to HIV/AIDS, there is hope for a similar change in attitude to gay and lesbian people.


Other Stories