Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - Friday, Oct. 22, 1999
George Gedda, Associated Press Writer
The outdoor class took place to the sound of beating drums on a hot morning in a low-income Nairobi neighborhood. It featured wildly gyrating dancers whose movements highlighted in unsubtle ways the dangers of promiscuity.
Albright, who is on the last leg of a six-nation Africa tour, visited the site after a meeting with Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi.
Afterward she praised the government's economic reform program. The meeting also included a discussion of ways to end the war in neighboring Sudan, where 1.9 million people are believed to have died over the past 16 years.
The ABC message on AIDS was delivered by, among others, a dancer playing the role of a stern, stethoscope-wearing doctor who raced to and fro with placards stressing the importance of responsible behavior to avoid the AIDS scourge.
The gathering was urged to practice abstinence until at least age 21 - the age when the group was told that people are "physically, psychologically and emotionally ready to face the challenges of life."
The point also was driven home through the retelling, in Swahili, of fables including one titled "One Pen, One Book," which stresses the importance of mutual fidelity between sexual partners.
With an AIDS-related death rate of 500 a day, Kenya needs creative ideas to help curb the plague, and dance troupes all over the country are delivering same type of message Albright witnessed today.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has been contributing $5 million a year to the program; Kenyan officials asked Albright for more money.
After the anti-AIDS performance, Kenyan Minister for Public Health Sam Ongeri said that after years of increasing life expectancy, Kenyans can now expect to live on average only 48 years compared with 63 years in the pre-AIDS era.
Kenya is one of the nine African countries hardest hit by AIDS. Almost 14 percent of the adult population of Kenya was infected by HIV/AIDS last year, according to official figures. HIV prevalence ranges up to 85 percent among some high risk groups.
"AIDS is stealing Kenya's future," Albright said. She also noted that, worldwide, "AIDS has killed more people than all the wars of this century."
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