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AIDS Hotline: Kenya AIDS Watch Institute (KAWI) launched Kenya's first National Aids Hotline to disseminate information on issues related to the disease. More >>>.

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OUR MOTTO

Every day, 700 Kenyans die of HIV/AIDS related diseases. AIDS is spreading rapidly. We join this war because "we are determined to make a difference."

A Ravaged Continent:

KAWI's brochure, depicting, among others the South African Aids Campaigner and victim Nkosi Johnson. Africa is the continent most affected by HIV/AIDS and the efforts made by organizations are paying dividends in alleviating the situation.

· Aids Funds: Ministry of Health Fails Test

FAILURE LAST week by Kenya, which accounts for about 5 per cent of the world Aids cases, to qualify for any assistance from the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria is an indictment of the country's health authorities' lackadaisical approach to health, local health NGOs say.

Following the failure, several local NGOs will meet this week under the auspices of the Kenya Aids Watch Institute (Kawi) to devise ways of accessing the fund's support without involving the government, which they say has failed to offer the necessary leadership. Click Here

· HIV/Aids: Condoms have not made much difference

It is now two and a half years since President Moi declared HIV/Aids a national disaster.

Within this span of time, a lot of ground has been covered, unless of course one refuses to see this. The government has established a clear policy framework and played a key role in mobilising financial, human and technical resources to combat HIV/Aids and to mitigate its impact. Click Here

· Where Aids orphans see prostitution as a way out

Prostitution is not a new trade in Rangwe, South Nyanza, but social workers are astounded by its meteoric rise in the height of the Aids pandemic. Nearly 500 orphaned girls in the district have become sex workers.

"The epidemic has left them fending for themselves," says Ms Nereah Seda, a community worker. Neglected by relatives, their behaviour is reactive and reckless. Click Here

· Aids epidemic still in early stages and yet to level off

New York, 2 July 2002 - A new report released today by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), in advance of the XIVth International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, warns that the AIDS epidemic is still in an early phase. HIV prevalence is climbing higher than previously believed possible in the worst-affected countries and is continuing to spread rapidly into new populations in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe. Click Here

Why the Aids apathy is lethal

Let’s talk about sex. Yes, you read me right. Let’s really talk about sex. More to the point, let’s talk about safe sex. It is something that we Kenyans are not particularly good at. If the latest statistics are anything to go by, it is high time we got our act together and stopped cringing every time the S word is mentioned in public.

Let’s take a look at some statistics as we warm up to the subject: According to data released by USAid at the just-concluded International Aids Conference in Barcelona, some 2.5 million Kenyans are living with HIV/Aids. That is 2.5 million Kenyans in the prime of their lives – those in the 15 to 49 age bracket. It is a tragedy not just at the personal level, but also at the national level. Click Here

· How greed fuels the scourge in Kenya

One of the biggest catalysts for the rapid spread of Aids in Kenya has been politics and politicians. When we entrust politicians to manage a disaster of this magnitude, the result can only be more disaster.

When Aids first manifested itself in Kenya, we began playing the dangerous game that most human beings like – blaming others. It became a disease of some communities and certain people. Only those from particular sectors – truck drivers, commercial sex workers, gay people – were in danger of infection. Click Here

· Aids infections soar to new high

One of Africa’s richest countries told the XIV International Aids Conference in Spain yesterday that it stands the risk of extinction.

Theories that tied the HIV/Aids pandemic to poor nutrition and poverty are increasingly being proved partially wrong.

Although the poor and the undernourished stand greater risks of infection and faster deaths, the reality is that the pandemic is no respector of dietary, economic and social standing.

The concerns from one of Africa’s richest countries, whose citizens are likely to be better nourished, is raising new concerns in the fight against HIV/Aids. Click here

· Kenya set to benefit from US programme

Kenya is among three African countries set to benefit from the United States of America’s antiretroviral (ARV) therapy programmes for people living with HIV/Aids in the sub-Saharan region.

The programme, to be implemented by the US Agency for International Development (USaid) will ensure that people living with the virus in Kenya, Rwanda and Ghana access the ARV therapy. Click here

· Put more will in Aids war

As much as it is a health crisis, the Aids epidemic has political overtones that we would be foolhardy to ignore. Indeed, UNAids executive director Peter Piot makes a powerful case for turning the campaign against Aids into a political issue.

There is every reason why we should do so in Kenya. Twenty years into the epidemic, there is hardly any Kenyan who has not been touched by Aids in one way or another. Yet the campaign against it remains muted and we lack the political commitment necessary to scale it up into concrete action on all fronts. Click Here

· Has war on Aids been compromised?

Early this week, questions were raised in the media about a Sh19-million spending at the National Aids Control Council, the Government body charged with co-ordinating Kenya's fight against HIV/Aids.

The issue, now being investigated by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Police Unit, is likely to add to growing inquiries on the manner the council conducts its affairs, including its apparent failure to attract major financial commitments from the international community to support its activities.

In April, for instance, the council failed to win financial support from the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, though with 2.4 million HIV-positive people, Kenya is one of the countries hardest-hit by HIV. Click Here

Other News...

Alarm over Aids orphans

Kenya has the third highest number of Aids orphans in the world, estimated at 890,000, a shocking new report from the United Nations says.

The report says about 15 per cent of Kenya's adult population (between 15 and 49 years) are living with HIV, a total of 2.5 million.

A survey undertaken in the country shows that the fall in price of anti-retroviral drugs to around US$ 600 (about KSh46,000) per person from US$ 2,400 (about KSh189,000) per person has increased usage by 1,000 per cent from 5,000 people to 50,000 people. But even then, the prices are still too expensive for most African governments and only Botswana, so far, is planning to give all those infected by HIV/Aids anti-retrovirals in the coming months.

Rethink strategy on Aids

Just as the Government began waxing proud of the fact that the HIV/Aids infection cases were stabilising - in fact, declining - a new United Nations Report painted a grave picture of the real situation obtaining. Kenya ranks third on the list of countries with large numbers of Aids orphans.

To be precise, Kenya has 890,000 Aids orphans, following Nigeria and Ethiopia with a million and 990,000, respectively.

The implication is that all the efforts so far spent on trying to stem the spread have not hit the desired target. To be sure, the Government has declared Aids a national disaster and set up structures and organs to deal with it.

Several groups, particularly NGOs, have sprung up in the past 18 years expressly to campaign against the scourge, groups which at times made critics wryly comment that the Aids campaign had become a growth industry.

For long, there was an erroneous understanding of Aids as a medical rather that socio-economic and politico-cultural crisis. Thus, the campaign strategies did not take a multi-sectoral dimension.

What now transpires is that we have a disaster of enormous proportions on our hands which requires sober, practical and tactful action plans to redress. A large population of orphans is a colony of poverty. It is a group largely deprived of basic rights, including food, shelter, education and medical services.

Cumulatively, the impact of Aids on economic growth as it kills those in productive sectors, including labour, trade, agriculture and other professions, is now well documented.

So, if there was any moment of reckoning, it is now. We are all challenged to reflect on our individual and collective responses to this tragedy and start putting in place structures, not only to contain its spread, but also to assist those infected and affected by Aids. (Daily Nation / Wednesday, July 3, 2002 http://www.nationaudio.com)

Contact KAWI: afrodevelop@bidii.com

Kenya AIDS Watch Institute, Woodlands Road, Hurlingham, Nairobi

Tel: 726083/726613, Fax 726613, P.O. Box 10013, 00100, GPO, Nairobi, Kenya.