Inter Press Service - January 12, 2004
Joyce Mulama

Last week, a suit was filed on behalf of the children alleging they had been refused admission by five public schools, apparently because they were infected with the AIDS virus. The schools in question were located near Nyumbani Children's Home outside of Nairobi, where the children live. This institution cares for HIV-positive children who have been abandoned.

According to the home's founder, Angelo D'Agostino, the children had needed to register for the first school term of 2004, which started on Jan. 5.

Carol Olwana, director of an anti-AIDS lobby group in Nairobi, Campaigners for an AIDS Free Society (CAFS), wasn't surprised by last week's developments.

"This is something that has been happening for so long. It is only that it has never been exposed," she says.

The Association of People Living With Aids in Kenya (TAPWAK) is equally concerned. "The issue of public schools locking out children who are HIV/AIDS positive is senseless. The government may not be directly involved.It could be a few individuals in the schools who lack information on the disease," Rowlands Lenya, Executive Director of TAPWAK, told IPS.

The lawyer for the Nyumbani children, Ababu Namwamba, accused school principals, the City Council Education Department and the Ministry of Education of discriminating against his clients by refusing to enrol them. Government denied the charges.

The two parties have now reached an agreement in which the children will be admitted to various primary schools, with the City Council supervising the enrolment.

"We have reached consent with the government that the children be taken into class immediately," Namwamba said. In a statement issued later, he added: ".our judiciary has demonstrated its readiness to uphold and assert human entitlements of all shades, including those within the socio-economic realm, as being due to all classes of the citizenry, no less the vulnerable, the weak and the voiceless".

Despite having settled matters with the children's home, government is clearly nettled by the suit. "We have agreed. But (Nyumbani) wants to paint a bad picture of the government," said John Gacivih, Deputy Chief State Counsel for the Education Ministry.

Teachers, in their turn, claim to be bewildered by last week's outcry about alleged discrimination.

"We are not aware of anything of that sort as a union. We have never received any complaints from any body. We just read it in the newspapers," Lawrence Majali, acting Secretary-General of the Kenya National Union of Teachers, said.

Free primary education in Kenya was introduced early last year after the government of President Mwai Kibaki took over power on Dec.31, 2002.

In September last year, the government also introduced the "HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Bill" which, amongst other things, seeks to criminalize discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS. (END/IPS/AF/EA/HD/HE/ED/SD/JM/JH/03)

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