Homosexuality and the HIV/AIDS challenge

Esther Murugi Mathenge (PNU, Nyeri Town) has set the cat among the pigeons suggesting that homosexuals and commercial sex workers should be mainstreamed when addressing the spread of HIV/AIDS as persons of concern. She is right. In the United States, when they were first researching the spread of this deadly condition, the stigmatisation of homosexuals in San Fransisco robbed the researchers of valuable time that would have permitted them to come up with effective strategies to ensure that it did not spread to the general population. The same farce is being played out in Kenya. It is now widely acknowledged that many homosexual Kenyans enter into heterosexual relationships in order to hide their predilections, putting their heterosexual partners at risk, especially if they engage in unprotected activities with their homosexual partners.

The debates surrounding art. 45 of the new Constitution primarily concentrated on the vexed question of whether homosexual marriages were permitted. We missed the point by a mile. Homosexual conduct in Kenyan society is rampant and many homosexuals are unaware of their HIV/AIDS status because of the stigma associated with their private lives. Consequently, many of them do not take appropriate prophylactic precautions, placing the general populace at risk of infection. As a result, we are unaware of the numbers associated with homosexuality and the infection rates among them. Given that many of them are also in committed heterosexual relationships, it is impossible to know how many of their partners have also been infected and therefore, we are not in a position to ensure that they are also tested and treated, where infected, before it is too late.

We should not concentrate overwhelmingly on their conduct as much as on the implications of such conduct. It is argued elsewhere that the criminalisation of homosexual conduct has not led to the reduction in the numbers of homosexuals in Kenya. Neither have faith-based or psychiatric interventions. The problem that the country is grappling with cannot be wished away by waving some magic wand. We must face up to the fact that the numbers of homosexuals are increasing and that this population is at risk as there are no strategies to address their infection or that of their heterosexual partners. Hon. Murugi is right to ask for a sea change in attitudes with the aim of improving access to treatment for this class of people. Moralising loudly about it will not solve the problem.