Inter Press Service - July 14, 1999
Katy Salmon

For the princely sum of 500 shillings some accept client's request not to use a condom. "Because you are hungry for money you take it," says one woman. It is estimated that 95 percent of commercial sex workers in this area are HIV positive. These women did not learn about safe sex in time to protect themselves.

In 1985, only 0.2 percent of sex workers were using condoms regularly. Today, following intensive education efforts by non- governmental organisations (ngos), offering free medical services in clinics near Majengo Road, 80 percent say they use them.

They often face resistance from clients. "Men who take a lot of beer don't want to use condoms. If I get one who does not want to use it, I forget him," says Monica, a heavily made-up woman in her forties who has been working in cheap boarding houses for over a decade.

In some of these houses, the women club together to make sure the men comply with their rules. "If a man goes with one of the women and pretends he cannot use a condom, she will scream. The other women come and he will be beaten," says Monica.

The majority of sex workers - the highest risk transmitter group - now claim to practice safe sex but most ordinary Kenyans do not. A recent survey found only six percent of women and 21 percent of men used a condom in their last sexual encounter.

Attitudes need to change fast if Kenya is going to tackle Aids effectively. About 1.4 million of the 30 million population are estimated to be infected with HIV. With 60 percent of the population aged under 30, it is vital to target young people. A staggering 22 percent of 15 to 19 year old girls attending antenatal clinics are HIV positive.

"As a country, we have not embarked on a serious programme to address the issue of sexual behaviour amongst the youths. We have not even made a dent. Until we start to make a serious investment, we can count ourselves in trouble, seeing HIV cases shooting up for the next 15 years," predicts George Kaggwa of the Family Planning Association of Kenya.

He says, "One question comes up in every discussion I have with young people: 'Is it true that condoms are laced with Aids?'

At school, teenagers are not told that condoms can protect against HIV. Instead, they are told that abstention is the best method. Students only learn about Aids in career subjects, like biology, where the basic facts about the killer disease are taught in a very clinical way.

"We don't teach about condoms to students, even secondary students," says a Ministry of Health official who refused to be named.

"People do not want to imagine that their sons and daughters are sexual beings. These days, young people are maturing early and they are marrying late. They are likely to engage in sex before they get married. We have to treat this generation differently. A young person who is having sex should be told to use a condom to save his life," says Kaggwa.

Sex education in schools is highly controversial. "Family life education plans were shelved several years ago after religious groups, led by Catholics and Muslims, protested by burning condoms and sex education materials at public rallies in Nairobi's Uhuru Park.

"We don't accept condoms," says Archbishop Dingi Mwana N'zeki, the head of the Catholic Church. "In areas where condoms are encouraged deaths from Aids have got worse. They are not 100 percent safe. Everybody admits abstention is the best."

A quarter of 30 million Kenyans are Catholics, making it the largest denomination in the country.

Shariff Nassir, Home Affairs Minister, recently spoke out against condoms at a youth rally. He explains: "Young girls don't know about sex. If you tell them to have condoms, you are telling them to have sex. These girls never want sex but now they think they're free because they have the condom..."

"The condom issue is so infuriating," says Don Dickerson, who runs the British-government funded Hiv/Aids Prevention and Care Project.

"Whatever you feel about the morality or immorality of premarital sex, the data show that it happens and it happens at a young age. You can preach abstinence until you're blue in the face but you can't stop it. Personally, I think it is unethical and immoral not to give those young people information about condoms. You've got to treat them as people and give them the choice," he says.

Condoms are freely available in many bars, hotels and video rooms, but many young people are still not using them.

Twenty one-year-old Jackson Omondi, who claims he did not even learn of the existence of Aids until he started working for the Kibera Community Self-Help Project in one of Nairobi's slum areas, explains: "Most boys say they can't use it, there's not the sensation."

Those who carry condoms are often stigmatised as promiscuous: "The girls suspect that he's carrying some infection and that's why he's using it," says Omondi.

Dickerson hopes to change such attitudes via a new Aids education project, just launched this month. Two "video vans" will tour Nyanza Province, one of the worst affected regions, showing three different videos to young people.

"The videos will raise a lot of questions, showing youths in different situations but not showing the outcome," says Dickerson. "There's really not been a change in behaviour because of the passive way information is distributed. This goes a step further by bringing people into a discussion, asking them: "What happens next?"

While such initiatives will doubtless save some lives, these two touring 'video vans' can only reach a fraction of the millions of young Kenyans who are currently putting themselves at risk.

"It's still very difficult and sensitive to work with adolescents. That has to change," says Dickerson. "If you talk to a 35-year-old, they're not going to change their sexual habits. If you can talk to people as young as 10 - you don't have to be explicit - but you can just get them thinking. People have to change their behaviour."

Kaggwa agrees: "We need to intensify our approach in teaching young people about sex. Schools should be the key entry point. Let us have it as an extracurricular subject that is taught informally, building their values, empowering them to make responsible decisions." (END/IPS/ks/mn/99)
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