Time (11.07.09) - Monday, November 16, 2009
Nick Wadhams

"As a country and as an African culture, we live in full denial of the existence of homosexuality," said James Kamau, national coordinator of a group that promotes the availability of essential medications to Kenyans. "We shut our eyes, our minds, and everything, yet it is happening every single day."

The survey will seek to address a gap in knowledge of where vulnerable populations are located and how best to reach them, said Warren Buckingham, Kenya coordinator for the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. In three cities - Nairobi, Kisumu in the western part of the country, and Mombasa on the coast - researchers will pose a series of questions to men who have sex with men (MSM). The unprecedented effort also will try to estimate how many of the men are HIV-positive or have STDs.

Organizers say there is no attempt to identify all of the country's homosexual men, and information from those who do respond will be kept confidential. Survey participants will include male and female sex workers as well as IV drug users.

Homosexuality is illegal in Kenya, and the survey is not likely to inspire changes in the law anytime soon, said the leader of a gay-rights advocacy group that is organizing the project. In fact, Peter Njane said, gays have a difficult time accessing health care services.

"Some of us have gone to a public health facility and if the doctor realizes we are gay, they will draw attention to us, even from the reception, calling people, 'Come and see a gay person,'" said Njane, director of the Ishtar MSM advocacy group.

Nevertheless, Njane said the country's efforts to fight HIV take precedence over such attitudes. About 7 percent of Kenyans are believed to be HIV-positive, and only 15 percent of those likely know they are infected. Most HIV transmission in Kenya is through heterosexual sex or IV drug use, but 15 percent is among MSM.
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