InterPress News Service (IPS); Monday, 29 July 1996.
Charles Wachira

A motion to that effect, to be discussed in August, was moved in June in the country's 200-seat parliament by opposition legislator Mwangi Gichuki. He said he did so "in view of the fact that there is a tremendous increase in rape cases and most of the culprits are HIV positive."

Gichuki charged that, since January, 100 children had been raped in Kenya and "25 of them were infected with veneral diseases while five of them were infected with the HIV virus." The culprits, he added, were given light sentences, ranging from two to 24 years and up to 15 strokes of the cane.

The debate on HIV-positive rapists has heated up here since the conviction last month of a man who had abused a 50-year-old woman in the west Kenyan town of Siaya three years ago.

The man, Peter Okello, and two companions went to the woman's home one night claiming to be policemen looking for a gun that had disappeared from the compound of a local chief. After "arresting" the woman, Okello and one of his accomplices, Eluid Okwapa -- both HIV-positive -- raped her in a thicket while the third man, John Obare, stood guard.

The district's resident magistrate, Charles Omolo, last month sentenced Okello and Obare to 10 years imprisonment and 13 strokes of the cane each. Okwapa had earlier died while on remand.

In handing down his ruling, Omolo said the victim "will suffer physically and physiologically for the rest of her life because she was raped by HIV-positive men."

According to the National AIDS Control Programme and the National Council for Population and Development, about 1.1 million people were infected by HIV between 1986 (when the first case was reported here) and 1995. Two-thirds have been men.

Kenya has a population of about 28 million.

Gichuki told IPS that "it is a matter of great concern that although there is an urgent need to minimise HIV infection in society, courts continue to mete out light sentences to rapists, particularly those with HIV."

Reactions to his proposal have been mixed.

"Capital punishment is wrong under any condition and should not apply whether we are talking of HIV rapists or not," said Njuguna Mutahi of the Kenya Human Rights Commission.

"Hanging an individual is the role of God," said secretarial student Sarah Kantai. "Nobody, no one, should do it, not even a government."

But others, including Rowland Lenya, director of the Kenya Association of People with Aids (KAPWA) feel rapists with HIV should be executed. Lenya, who is HIV-positive, told IPS that during counselling sessions with other people infected with the virus, he had come across many who were out for revenge.

"Every day we receive about two or three new cases of people who have tested positive," he said. "When I talk to them they tell me to my face that they are going to take revenge. Some even get married even when they know what that could lead to."

"I deal with both women and men during counselling sessions," he added. "From my observation it is men who feel more hurt, at least from what they say. Women don't talk much. They seem resigned to their fate. Apart from expressing their emotions openly by crying, they don't talk of revenge. But men are outspoken. They actually talk of spreading the virus."

However, Lucy Nganga of the Kenya AIDS Consortium -- an umbrella of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that deal with the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) -- says capital punishment will not stop HIV-positive people from committing rape or from having unprotected sex.

"The government has first to come out with a clear legal document showing why people suffering with AIDS are being singled out for capital punishment," she told IPS. "This is discriminatory.

"What is needed is the total eradication of the rape menace. It is unfortunate that politicians want to stigmatimise AIDS victims even further. Since many people with AIDS believe they will die anyway, they will welcome hanging not hate it."

In May this year, Attorney General Amos Wako had announced that the government was preparing to make discrimination against HIV- positive people punishable by law. He said the constitution prohibited discriminatory treatment unless it was reasonable, justifiable and necessary in the interest of public health, morality and safety.

Kenya's penal code provides for mandatory death sentences for people convicted of treason, murder or armed robbery. The maximum penalty for those found guilty of rape or attempted rape is life imprisonment.

Official statistics for 1994, the latest available, showed that 932 people had been on death row since 1984. Of these, 364 had successfully appealed to have their sentences commuted. There have been no reports of executions in recent years (END/IPS/CW/KB/96)

960729
IP960712

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 1996. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 1996. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .