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Kenya: AIDS services
for gay men slowly grows
28 Dec 2006-
Kenya- Although sex between men remains illegal in Kenya, services
addressing HIV/AIDS and the sexual health needs of men who have sex with
men (MSM) are slowly becoming available to this much-neglected and
stigmatised group.
The University of
Liverpool's Voluntary Counselling and Testing Services (LVCT), for
instance, has been offering advice to MSM since 2003 and now offers a
full range of services, including messages about safer sex, voluntary
counselling and testing (VCT) and antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.
Widespread stigma
and denial regarding homosexuality make it virtually impossible for men
who have sex with men to seek knowledge and treatment openly and, as a
result, ignorance about safer sex practices persists.
"There is a strong
link between HIV, and vaginal and penile sex for reproduction," said
Angus Parkinson, MSM services coordinator at LVCT. "This creates the
illusion that if you have sex that is not reproductive - that is oral or
anal - then there is no HIV risk. This creates a gap in prevention
services in Kenya."
According to
Parkinson, only a very small proportion - 0.1 percent - of male visitors
to LVCT reported having sex with a man, but the true figure was likely
to be much higher.
"There are lots of
studies from across the globe that suggest that between five [percent]
and ten percent of any given male population participate in some form of
same-sex sexual behaviour," he told PlusNews.
DANGEROUS
IGNORANCE
Safer sex, with
correct and consistent condom use, is a key area of the education
provided by LVCT and Iishtar MSM, a nongovernmental organisation (NGO)
working for MSM rights in Kenya. A 2005 Population Council study on MSM
in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, found that 75 percent of respondents had
used a condom the last time they engaged in male-to-male sexual contact.
However, correct
condom use posed a bigger problem. Emmanuel Ilamau, national MSM
coordinator at Iishtar, said water-based lubricants were expensive and
not locally made, so many men used baby oil or other oil-based
lubricants, which could damage the condoms. The Population Council
report found that just 26 percent of respondents knew that only
water-based lubricants should be used with latex condoms.
Iishtar educates
its members about the correct use of condoms and lubricants, but does
not have sufficient funds to distribute a lubricant along with condoms.
"I have a problem, as I feel it is immoral to distribute condoms without
lubricant," Ilamau said.
An additional risk
is the fact that men who have sex with men often have multiple sexual
partners and also have sex with women, putting a wider population at
risk. The Population Council report found that having multiple sexual
partners was common among MSM, with 79 percent of respondents having had
sex with more than two partners in the past year, and 30 percent of
those "could not remember the actual number".
SOCIETY NOT
READY TO ACCEPT MSM
Iishtar also
provides support and advice on safer sex to their members, but signing
up members hasn't been easy because many men are reluctant to admit that
they have sex with other men. The NGO has 75 members, but usually
attracts more people during functions.
The Population
Council report found that 22 percent of respondents had endured verbal,
physical and sexual assault in the preceding one-year period as a result
of people discovering they were having sex with other men. "Stigma and
discrimination are part and parcel of the daily lives of MSM in Kenya,"
Ilamau commented.
Male-to-male sex is
a criminal offence with a jail sentence of five to 14 years, making it
difficult for the government and NGOs to include this group in their
AIDS programmes. Calls for a change in the law have been widely
condemned by conservatives and the religious right, who feel that
homosexuality does not conform to religious teachings and is
"un-African".
"There is a strong
public health argument for reforming the law, but possibly a stronger
religious and moral reaction to keep the laws in place - this is a
political issue," said LVCT's Parkinson.
Nevertheless,
progress is slowly being made. "We have identified this group [MSM] in
our strategic plan and we are facilitating organisations that run
programmes for them," said Stephen Malai, of the National AIDS Control
Council. "We help them by providing condoms and education on safer sex
practices."
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