Maisha

Homosexuality in Kenya

Charles Baraka ♦ May 12, 2013 ♦ 3 Comments

            When I came across this article about twelve years ago,it opened my eyes to see the the Kenyan gay world and its reality.I was still trying to figure out who ‘I was’. I thought it would be a walk in the park.For the sake of keeping myself updated and informed I downloaded it from the internet and still retain a  hard copy of the same.The reason why this piece of writing captivated me, was because it sheds light on the Kenya gay scenes as it was then and which has remained the same over the years.

             The author too was like seeing into the future,a ‘prophet’ of some sort on how HIV/AIDs would become a  thorn to deal with affecting not only concerned parties but the Kenyan society as a whole. Besides that,this piece of writing goes into greater lengths of explaining the challenges that gay men have to grapple with on a day to day basis in relating to the society be it socially or in the market place.So much can be deciphered from this writing to  try to provide solutions as well as how to deal with issues currently facing the community.I hope it is an eye opener to you all my readers particularly those in the LGBT family.

Homosexuality takes root in Kenya

Daily Nation
Nairobi, Kenya

By:Wanjira Kiama

June 24, 1998

While sex between men is accepted in few societies, over the past 20 years there has been increasing awareness that it occurs all over the world. Only in sub-Saharan Africa do we still have widespread denial among the authorities that men have sex with other men. However, with increased willingness by researchers to investigate the issue and the emergence of small gay-identified organisations, the subject is gradually coming under scrutiny across the continent. The following report by Wanjira Kiama opens a window on to the lives of Kenyan men who have sex with other men.

What comes across most clearly is the fact that for many of those interviewed the “ultimate goal ” is a strong emotional relationship – love – with another man and that sexual activity is a means of both expressing and searching for that love. This is not to deny that many sexual acts between men in Kenya and elsewhere are no more than a desire for physical relief, but at least partially explains why the desire many men have for other men is so powerful that it overcomes even the strongest taboos. Several points should be noted.

First, the fact that the men interviewed live in Mombasa and Nairobi does not mean that sexual activity between men only takes place in these cities; as in every country, the relative anonymity provided by cities allows greater opportunity for sex between men but men who have, or wish to have, sex with men, are to be found across Kenya and across Africa.

Secondly, the men Kiama interviews are relatively open about their sexual activity and many of them have obviously thought carefully about the conflict between their desires and prevailing Kenyan customs. Others, who are less open about their sexual activity with men, with others or with themselves, are likely to describe their situations differently.

Thirdly, while Kiama’s suggestion that sex between men is more tolerated in Mombasa because of Arabic influence may be true, the activity itself occurs irrespective of cultural or tribal influence.

Finally, it should be noted that because some speakers confuse sexual activity and sexual identity, words such as “homosexual” and “gay” are sometimes used differently here.

Kenya’s first President Jomo Kenyatta, once claimed that there is no African word for homosexuality. This proves, he argues, that homosexuality is foreign and totally unAfrican. According to President Moi,”Kenya has no room or time for homosexuals and lesbians‘‘. Homosexuality is against African norms and traditions, and even in religion it is considered a great sin”. Kenyatta’s and Moi’s opinions reflect a disapproval of men who have sex with men that runs broad and deep in Kenyan society. Typical is the attitude of Michael Kariuki, 37, an accountant with a non- governmental HIV/Aids organisation. “Homosexuals are a menace to society”. They should not only be jailed, but the key to the lock should be thrown away.”

When asked what he would do if he learned that his son was homosexual, his anger rises: “I would disown him before I cause him grievous harm. I would rather sire a cow than a homosexual. With a cow you get milk, but what possible good or value would come out of a homosexual?” In Mombasa, on the Coast, there is greater acknowledgement of homosexuality, but no more acceptance. Men who are believed to have sex with men are despised, ridiculed, harassed and sometimes beaten and during political campaigns – emotionally charged periods when people commonly express deep-seated fears and hatred – often threatened with lynching. Children shout shoga (male prostitute) at them on the streets.

This hostility towards men who have sex with men reflects generally conservative attitudes in the Kenyan society towards all aspects of sexual behaviour. Despite one of the severest HIV/AIDs epidemics in the world, Government officials have removed from the school curriculum any subject, topic or learning material that touches on sex education – including Family Life, a booklet published by the American Girl Guides Association. In August 1995 the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Nairobi joined hands with the Imam of Jamia Mosque in Nairobi as they led their faithful in the burning of condoms and sex education books in Nairobi.

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The “Myth” of Homosexuality in Kenya Society

Daily Nation,
Nairobi, Kenya

June 24, 1998

Paul, 39, a technician at the University of Nairobi, married with three children, gets almost hysterical with laughter when asked whether he knows any homosexual people. “What would I be doing with homosexuals? Don’t I look man enough?” he bellows. Yet, within walking distance from the university, in a building open to the public, young men who openly refer to themselves as gay meet on a regular basis to socialise, a few even coming in for the sundowner (a drink at the end of the day) wearing make-up and jewellery.While men, such as Eddy, Ivan and Jack are “obvious”, others are more discreet.

There is 42-year-old Odongo, for example, a petrol attendant who grew up in Kisumu and pays for male partners. His family forced him to marry but he has no intimacy with his wife, who still resides in Kisumu.

Or Jared, 55, who works as a casino manager and owns a in house in a posh Nairobi suburb. Jared has been married three times and has a six-year-old daughter. Each of his wives left after finding out that their marriage was just a front. Jared goes to church every Sunday “to pray for my sin” but is unable to abandon his lifestyle. He keeps framed love letters in his house and treats his male guests to sex videos for entertainment.

Amin, 54, is a primary school headmaster who leads two lives – one in public during the day, the other in the evening in the backstreets of Nairobi. He chews miraa (a herbal intoxicant) in a bar and restaurant where he can drink, eat and pick up a young man whom he will take to a more private facility where he can hire a room for sex before going home to sleep. His relationships are with young men in their twenties, who he assists financially.

Peter, a 50-year-old property developer and “social animal”, once married and now divorced, is seen frequently at social functions with different young women. When the party is over, he drops the girls home, then takes up his male relationships in private. Statistics on men who have sex with men can be difficult to find, but the men themselves are to be found across the nation. Kisumu, for example, has a reputation for homosexual activity, with men such as gardeners, cooks, hotel, shop and golf attendants, having relationships with their – usually older – employers. ”Money” rather than desire appears to be the motive for many of the younger men, while the older men have the wealth to cover their lifestyle from general public scrutiny.

Perhaps not surprisingly, it is in Nairobi where men who have sex with other men are easiest to find, although not everyone is aware of this. Men who have sex with men are perhaps more accepted at the Coast, where the Arabic past heavily influences the Swahili culture. Not only is there is a Swahili word for homosexuality (msenge), but there are cases of marriages between men. Twenty- three-year-old Hassan, for example, has been married three times, each time complete with dowry and wedding rings.

Hassan appears feminine, pouting his lips and covering his face when laughing.When walking, he swings delicately while holding his kanzu (robe) under his arm – much in the same manner as Arabic women carry themselves. He wishes his marriages had been legal, so that he could claim his rights from the husbands who have abandoned him.

He believes that one in particular, who left him when he (the husband) was forced by his parents to take a wife, will come back to him. “I used to cook for this man, make his bed, and be there for him. Yet he left me,” Hassan says sadly. As older women, known as mkungus, educate young girls in the duties of marriage, on the Kenyan coast young homosexual men learn from male mkungus.

Ahmed, 36, who lives in Mombasa, learnt bedroom tactics from a mkungu, as well as how to groom himself, to look out for disease and to keep his man happy by being a good cook. The training, which is both theoretical and practical – including sexual – lasts a month. At the end of the “course”, the younger man gives the mkungu special cloth and kitchen utensils as payment. Ahmed is now a mkungu himself, advising what perfume to sprinkle on one’s body to please the “husband” and demonstrating how to wear the special khanga (flowered cloth) in the house. “You must be clean and smell nice to your husband all the time,” he tells his recruits.

For eight years, Karim, 30, who also lives in Mombasa, has maintained a relationship with a 40-year-old man married to his cousin. Five years ago, the cousin caught them in bed. To hush things up, Karim was asked to marry his lover’s 16-year-old adopted daughter. From Karim’s point of view, it was a good arrangement, as it offered him both the respectability of a wife and continued access to his lover, now his father-in-law. With no experience with girls, Karim forced himself on his wedding night to provide his relatives with the evidence that he had broken his wife’s virginity. He now has a five-year- old daughter and does not want another child. Two evenings a week he and his lover hire a hotel room, where they spend several hours before each returns to his wife. At the travel agency where he works, Karim’s colleagues know that he is gay. The women are friendly, but some men despise him while others approach him in private. Karim believes that most men in Mombasa enjoy sex with other men and rejects the theory that homosexuality was brought by tourists.

Fazal, 30, a mechanical engineer with an 18-year-old lover, agrees. Now he is faithful to his partner, but as a teenager he had several experiences with fellow boys. “Many men in Mombasa try out homosexuality in their youth,” he says.

Abdul, also 30, is a successful businessman who travels frequently to the Gulf. He was a virgin when his parents found a wife for him, as is the tradition, and they have a two-year-old daughter. Meanwhile, Abdul has been in a loving relationship with another man his own age for the past three years. They have a small flat in which they meet regularly and where Abdul does all the housework. In his own house, where his wife and sisters prepare and serve his food, the roles are reversed.

Rocky, 23, is a tall young man from western Kenya who was brought up in Mombasa. He is a student of languages and hopes to become a tour guide. When he was younger, a neighbour his father’s age introduced him to homosexual activity. Their affair lasted three years. For the moment, Rocky does not have a stable relationship. “Marriage is not an option for me,” he says. “God made me and understands me. I don’t think what I do is a sin.”

Most men who have sex with men in Kenya keep their activities so “secret”they will not admit it to close friends or family members. As a result, the “pressures of a double life” get to many men. On the one hand, Abdul appears to adore his male lover of the last three years, but at the same time he says that now he has a one-year son he is tired of “playing around with the woman”. He would like to begin a new life and stop his homosexual relationship. “I don’t want my son to get to know that I am a homosexual, and for him to be ashamed of me,” he says. “I think that Allah will come to punish me.” Fazal, with an 18-year-old-lover, prays that one day “I will see the light and stop this sin”. His parents want to arrange a wedding for him, although he would rather get a wife on his own. “With time things change, and I might get used to a heterosexual relationship,” he says. He would like to move to Dubai, where he could live anonymously. “There I would not have to deal with the heartache of being despised and children calling one in the street msenge.”

Others, such as Eric believe that it is society rather than homosexual men who should change. But few would go so far as in Zimbabwe and Botswana or Europe and north America, where organisations of gay men have been established. In the 1960s, there was an attempt to form a gay club in Nairobi, when men met at the Pop-In restaurant (now closed). In the early 1970s, another Nairobi restaurant was popular until street fights erupted between women sex workers and gay men. Later, they got together at the Club 1900 until the Government cracked down on the club, citing drugs as the reason. Today, the locales where men who have sex with men can meet are well known to those “in the know”, but none advertise. Furthermore, since homosexuality in Kenya is considered a criminal act, few men are willing to “come out” – to openly admit their homosexuality and to demand a place for gay men in Kenyan society.

The stories of many men reveal that most are ”pressured into marriage”. Some wives know of their husband’s sexual and emotional relationships with other men, while other wives remain ignorant. Amin, the primary school headmaster, for example, has an unspoken agreement with his wife of 26 years. She knows that he prefers men, while he only “bothered with her” to have their three children. Karim in Mombasa has intimacy with his wife on Wednesdays and Saturdays, but does not enjoy it. Were she to walk away from the marriage, he says he would not bother to marry again. There are cases of heterosexual wives finding out that their husbands are bisexual. Some seek counselling, hoping that the husband will change, or they simply walk out if they are economically independent.Frank Njenga, of the Kenya Medical Association, recently handled a case where a woman found her husband and a male family friend in the matrimonial bed when she came home unexpectedly. The woman brought her husband for counselling. He agreed to stop having sex with men and stopped for some time only to go back to his old ways. The couple are now separated.

In another case, an accountant heard rumours about her husband from her gardener and came home one afternoon to find him in bed with the cook. She says, “I could not live with him another day, I moved into a hotel to sort out my feelings and to consult my lawyer.” Because of the children, it was the husband who eventually had to move out. Julie is still receiving psychological counseling.How much women are at risk of contracting HIV from their husbands’ affairs is uncertain. Often, there is little sexual contact between them, although even one act of intercourse is enough to transmit the virus if a condom is not used. A few men are careful to protect themselves and their wives by using condoms with their male partners.

Others believe they are not at risk. Abdul, mentioned above, does not use condoms because “I am faithful to my partner and to my wife”,so he says. With no official information to guide them, few men who have sex with men are persuaded to use condoms on a regular basis. Some of the men interviewed said they did not use condoms with their wives on the grounds that to do so would invite suspicion. Furthermore, they argued, there is no risk since they had only one male partner to whom they are faithful. (In fact, there is a risk if a partner is unfaithful or contracted HIV before the couple began having sex). Those who have multiple partners say they “try” to use condoms, but the word itself suggests they sometimes or often fail. Of the men interviewed, only Karim uses condoms all the time, although he calls them “cumbersome”. Many others, such as Abdul and Fazal, consider that fidelity protects them. Odongo sees no need for protection, while Jared believes that with young “untainted” boys he is safe. Amin occasionally uses condoms, believing that he cannot get HIV/Aids if he goes out with “fresh” men.

Kassim, 19, of Mombasa has just completed high school and would like to become a computer programmer. He admits that he has been promiscuous and that even though he is aware of Aids he does not use a condom. “Why spoil the fun?” he asks, adding, “I hope that I won’t get Aids.” Indeed, many of the men interviewed prefer to have sex without condoms. Others cited the fact that stronger condoms for homosexuals are not available in Kenya and the regular condoms they use tend to tear easily and are, therefore, ineffective.

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Homosexuality and Aids: A double-edged sword

Daily Nation
Nairobi, Kenya

June 24, 1998

Kenyan law defines any sexual relations between men as a criminal act. There are, however, few prosecutions; one exception is the current (early 1998) investigation into the Forum for Positive Generation on Aids Prevention, a registered community organisation for people with HIV in Kisumu. Police allege that the organisation has been “recruiting” homosexuals. The rarity of prosecutions is no doubt one of the factors behind the statement of Attorney-General Amos Wako that his office does not know the extent of homosexual practices in the country. Wako repeats the Government’s line that homosexuality is widely regarded as unAfrican and the wider public does not see the need for research in this area.

“What we have on this is just impressions, since there are no reliable figures anywhere,” says Dr Frank Njenga, a psychiatrist and chairman of the social responsibility committee for the Kenya Medical Association and an HIV/AIDS prevention activist. “People tend to either exaggerate or underrate the extent of homosexuality, bisexuality and lesbianism.” Njenga argues that Kenyan society has not “developed” to the level where people with a different sexual orientation are allowed to be themselves or develop within laws and rights set out for them. As a result, “we have a good number of Kenyan men who are constitutionally homosexual and socially heterosexual, so as to fit in the society”. The only national statistics that in any way relates to homosexual activity is the UNAIDS estimate that fewer than five per cent of Aids cases are the result of sexual transmission of HIV between men.

The UNAIDS resident advisor, Dr George Tembo, says that for Kenya and other developing countries, this is a grey area since there has been no authoritative study. The figure is based on anecdotal evidence. Furthermore, many African men having sex with other men are bisexual. “It is a double-edged sword,” says Tembo. “How does the doctor or sociologist decide whether the HIV/Aids infection of a bisexual man is through his relationship with a woman or with a man?” Meanwhile, studies undertaken by the African Medical Research Foundation (Amref) of the high incidence of sexually transmitted diseases among truck drivers between Mombasa and Uganda offer evidence of some homosexual activity, particularly between men and boys aged 12 to 16. “It is not known whether it is men expressing their own sexuality, or whether it is something learnt,” says Dr John Nduba, deputy director of the Amref country office.

Such studies are supported by anecdotal evidence that suggests sexual activity between men in Kenya is more common than generally believed. Young people, usually men with men and women with women, often share housing for economic reasons. But, according to Allan Ragi, chairman of the Kenya Aids NGO Consortium, some young men share housing for emotional and physical needs. He adds that although not officially acknowledged, homosexuality is practised in prisons, the military and boarding schools and colleges throughout the country. Ragi claims that more young men than old men participate in homosexual activity. An Aids programme manager with an international NGO who declined to be named, shares that opinion: “Men having sex with men is not only common among young people, but fashionable. Just as young men like to wear an earring, they are also opting to try out homosexual practice. It is not just seen as an orientation, but also a `fancy lifestyle’.”

According to interviews with men who have sex with men, the most common sexual activity is anal penetration. The roles within the relationship are often clearly defined, with the same partners taking the active (insertive) and passive (receptive) role. Those who are looking for steady relationships often do not rush into sex, preferring to get to know each other well first. In such situations, the relationship progresses from appreciative looks to touching, kissing and cuddling before more intimate touching and finally to sexual intercourse. Those who are interested only in casual relationships want only sex, sometimes watching erotic videos to put themselves and their partners in the mood. Due to the constraints on relationships between men, a good number of those interviewed have intense but short-lived relationships. Sometimes men give up relationships with other men, either to see if they can be happy in relationships with women or, because of society’s reaction, to practise celibacy.

In addition to the lifestyles described in this article, it is clear that there is “institutional homosexuality” – sexual activity between men in institutions such as boarding schools, the military and prisons- and this too is worthy of research. (PANOS)

Preventing Transmission of HIV

From time immemorial, men in most societies – past and present – writes Wanjira Kiama have had sexual relationships with other men. It is not known why some men prefer to have sex with other males rather than with women. As a species, human males and females mate in order to reproduce, but the sexual behaviour of individuals is driven by a range of social, psychological and biological factors that are still poorly understood. Recent studies suggest that a gene or the hypothalamus may influence a man’s desire to have sex with other men.

Unprotected anal intercourse has the highest risk to sexual transmission of HIV – and omitting this fact from education campaigns may actually increase the incidence of anal intercourse with men and women. Where understanding of Aids is poor, HIV can spread rapidly among groups of men who have sex with men and from them, less rapidly, to their female sexual partners and their future children. This pattern of rapid transmission occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s in North America and Western Europe and was seen later in several other countries. In some regions, such as North America, sex between men continues to be the predominant mode of HIV transmission while in others, such as the English-speaking Caribbean, it appears to have been overtaken by sexual transmission between men and women.

In Thailand, one paper suggest that 6 per cent of men have same-sex experience, but same- sex activity is responsible for 12 per cent of transmission of HIV infection in men. In countries where sex between men is recognised, non- governmental organisations and sometimes governments have developed prevention programmes which have often succeeded in limiting or reducing the rate at which HIV is transmitted between men. However, where sex between men is denied, such prevention programmes are seldom developed. In the last ten years, small groups of men in a number of countries have formed organisations which attempt to address this problem, but these have often been limited by financial and cultural considerations. These cultural factors may include hostility or indifference from the government, laws against sex between men., disagreement between different ethnic or socio- economic groups as to the goals of the campaign and hostility or indifference from the men they are trying to reach, who often deny that they are at risk.

Despite these obstacles, many NGOs working with men who have sex with men have gained valuable experience both in understanding the social and psychological factors behind such behaviour and in developing programmes which respond to these factors. The best of these programmes not only help men to protect themselves in their sexual encounters with other men, but also to protect their female partners and future children. Furthermore, by their actions and presence, they alert governments and, to some extent, the general population to the fact that men who have sex with men are an integral part of their society. As revealed in a study undertaken by Panos in 1996, there are still many countries and cultures where there is little or no recognition of the existence or the extent of sexual activity between men and where government and non-governmental response has been non-existent or minimal. This means that in many parts of the world, it is still not certain the extent to which sex between men is a significant factor in the Aids epidemic and assumptions of an exclusively or predominantly male-female epidemic need to be re-examined.

In the English-speaking Caribbean, the health authorities are re-examining the role of sexual transmission between men, prompted by awareness that many men are reluctant to admit sexual activity with other men and by the high percentage of cases where transmission is reported as “unknown” – 18 per cent across the region and as high as 35 per cent in some countries. Dr Bilali Camara points out that “in countries where sex between men is accepted, we see that there are less cases of `unknown’.” The implication is that many of these “unknowns” are in fact sex between men. A similar situation may be seen in Mexico, where the percentage of “unknowns” reaches 40 per cent. The debate as to whether these should be attributed to sex between men is much more than epidemiological, since it goes to the heart of how Mexicans perceive their own sexual behaviour.

Camara suggests that social pressures on men who prefer men may be perpetuating the epidemic in the Caribbean. “If society is really pushing people to be married and does not tolerate homosexuality, we will be battling for a long time.” He adds that only when society as whole accepts that some men prefer sex with men, will it be possible to “empower people to accept what they are and do the correct thing – that is practise protective behaviour.”

Muriel Douglas, acting co-ordinator of the National Aids Programme in Trinidad, recommends that education on HIV transmission between men be given to secondary school children of both sexes. While this might not increase tolerance, it would at least provide young men attracted to other men with the knowledge of how to protect themselves and would advise young women that their male partners may risk through sex with other men. However, Douglas admitted, this idea is still theoretical since funds are not available for such work.

AIDS in Kenya: Where Are Kenya’s Homosexuals?

African leaders from Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first president, to Robert Mugabe, current(by then) president of Zimbabwe, have claimed that sex between men is ”un-African” and only occurs on the continent as a result of pernicious Western influence. Daniel Arap Moi, the current Kenyan president, agrees. ”Kenya has no room or time for homosexuals and lesbians. Homosexuality is against African norms and traditions, and even in religion it is considered a great sin,” Arap Moi has been quoted saying i n Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper.

But networks of men who have sex with men can be found across the continent. And in Kenya, where homosexuality is a criminal offence, their voices are beginning to be heard. Statistics on the number of such men are hard to come by. ”What we have is just impressions,” said Dr Frank Njenga, a psychiatrist and HIV/AIDS prevention activist. Njenga argues that Kenya has ”a good number of men who are constitutionally homosexual but socially heterosexual, so as to fit in the society.”

As in all other developing countries, sex between men plays a small but measurable role in Kenya’s HIV/AIDS epidemic. But that role is not restricted to men alone. Official and societal disapproval often obliges such men to marry women. And if they have unprotected sex, the risk of HIV transmission increases. According to UNAIDS, the umbrella United Nations agency, fewer than five percent of AIDS cases in the country are the result of sexual transmission of HIV between men. But studies by the African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) of sexually transmitted diseases among truck drivers show evidence of homosexual activity, particularly between older men and boys aged 12 to 16 years. These studies are supported by anecdota l evidence which suggests that sex between men in Kenya is more common than generally believed.

AMREF is trying to establish how people contracted the virus in order to develop strategies that can help check transmission. According to AMREF’s Dr Nduba, ”Homosexuality is an area that needs to be looked into, but we tend to shy away from reality.”

”Men having sex with men is not only common among young people, but fashionable. Just as young men like to wear an earring, they are also opting to try out homosexual practice. It is not just seen as an orientation, but also a ‘fancy lifestyle’,” said All an Ragi, of the Kenya AIDS NGO Consortium.

Ragi says sex between men is “practiced” in prisons, the military, boarding schools and colleges throughout Kenya. And some men share housing not only for economic reasons, but also to meet emotional and physical needs. Other interactions are more open. Within walking distance of the University of Nairobi, in a building open to the public, young men who openly refer to themselves as gay meet regularly to socialise. A few even come in for a drink at the end of the day, w earing make-up and jewellery.

But in general, homosexuals in Kenya – as in many other countries tend to keep their sexuality a “secret”. They include men like:-
— Odongo, 42, a petrol attendant who no longer has intimacy with his wife but pays for sex with male partners;
— Jared, 55, who owns a big house in a posh Nairobi suburb, and has been married thrice — each of his wives left him after finding out that their marriage was a front for his homosexual lifestyle;
— Amin, 54, a primary school headmaster who hires a room for sex with young men he picks up in the evenings;
— Peter, a 50 year-old property developer who is frequently seen at social functions with young women. When the party is over, he drops the girls off before taking up his male relationships in private; and
— Rocky, 23, a student of languages who says ”Marriage is not an option for me. God made me and understands me. I don’t think it is a sin what I do.”

Men who have sex with men are perhaps more accepted in the coastal regions of Kenya, where there are ‘marriages’ between men. As older women, known as mkungus, educate young girls in the duties of marriage, young homosexual men learn from male mkungus. T he training lasts a month; at the end, the younger man gives the mkungu special cloth and kitchen utensils as payment.

“Most men who prefer sex with men claim that they are pressured into marriage”. Some wives know of their husband’s sexual and emotional relationships with other men, while others remain ignorant. Those who find out seek counselling, hoping that the husband will change, or, if they are economically independent, they walk out.

How much women are at risk of contracting HIV from their husbands’ affairs is uncertain.The taboos surrounding men who have sex with men have meant that few, if any, attempts have been made to provide AIDS education and support to them. As a result, few such men use condoms regularly. Some men do not use condoms with their wives because they “fear that it will invite suspicion”. Often there is little sexual contact between husband and wife, although even one act of intercourse is enough to transmit the virus if a condom is not used.

While authorities acknowledge the impact of male behaviour towards women on the epidemic, there is no official recognition of the role of homosexuals who may either themselves contract HIV or pass the virus to their male or female partners. UNAIDS Resident Advisor George Tembo says his organisation has not yet targeted men who have sex with men. ”Homosexuals are not easily accessible. They will need to come out of the closet if they are to get any attention,” he says.

However, a document adopted unanimously by the Kenyan Parliament in September 1997 acknowledges that ”groups such as beach boys, watchmen, soldiers, prisoners and truck drivers may usually establish casual relationships because circumstances separate th em from their regular sexual partners for long periods. This makes them more vulnerable to HIV.”

Maina Kahindo of the Ministry of Health comments that ”taking into account other modes of transmission of HIV/AIDS, homosexuality is negligible, and should not take up our resources and time.” He continues, ”We have other, far more pressing areas which affect the majority of our people and therefore need urgent attention.”

Source:The Internet