EVANS KIPRONO

UNIVERSTY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO

ENGLISH 1305
07/NOVEMBER/214
RESEARCH PAPER.

THE DARK SIDE OF HIV/AIDS DISEASE IN KENYA.

HIV/AIDs HISTORY AND HOW THE DISEASE IS SCIENTIFILY AND

CALTURALLY SEEN BY THE PEOPLE?
Acquire immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a disease cause by Human Immunodeficiency
Virus (HIV).The Human immunodeficiency virus impair the white blood cells destroying them.
HIV after getting into the body they are activated after sometimes making them multiply, this
will damage all the white blood cells making the body not able to fight disease and will lead to
death.
Human Immunodeficiency virus doesnt kill, it just weaken the immune system by killing the
white blood cells and when other diseases is contracted it just kills as the body cant fight

infection. HIV /Aids is greatly misunderstood by people. The diseases is seen a God punishment
to the sinner, other says the diseases was brought by my monkey species having sex with human
in Congo, others say the disease was made in Americans laboratory to wipe out black population
,reducing their population. There are many misperception of this disease in Africa and the
misconception is brought about because the people are have no enough knowledge on the
disease.

Scientifically according to The AIDS Institute at the United States Conference on AIDS 2014
The AIDS Institute at the United States Conference on AIDS in San Diego, California-October
2-5, 2014.The Scientists identified that a origin was from a chimpanzee in part of west Africa
and it was transmitted o human being when they come in conduct with chimpanzees for meat
containing infected blood .This disease then spread to all parts of Africa and then to the entire
world. The diseases was detected in blood sample in 1959 from a man in Kinshasa capital city of
Congo (The AIDS Institute at the United States Conference on AIDS in San Diego, n.d.).In
United States the disease was believe to exist in mid 1750s and then it was notice in 1982 by
public health officials when the people come to complain of uncommon fever and other diseases.

world population who die from HIV/AIDs in 2000

IN African there is a great problem that face its people, this is what it cause them to be ranked
the poorest continent yet they have resources that can make them rich and most develop
countries. HIV/Aids is a pandemic disease that is seen as a monster that kills everybody
regarding of age, gender and level of education. In this case everybody is crying because they are
affected in one way or the other. Kenya is a small country in East Africa not really in a bad
situation on the rate of HIV/AIDS infection compared to other countries like Zambia and
Mozambique, but the disease impact is really felt in many ways from the Government to people.
The disease was first seen in 1984 and by 1990s it was the most feared disease and the
government announced it a disaster, so Kenyan health budget was increase to fight the disease
and it help it reduce to 6.1percent from early 10.5 in 1996: http://www.avert.org/hiv-aidskenya.htm#sthash.ghDjQmoU.dpuf. Most of the Kenyan people are innocent on the disease
because people are not well educated on the disease, it is a silent killer because kids are not well

educated on it and early enough. The government should make HIV/AIDS a mandatory subject
in both elementary and high school. This will be of great awareness to the student and will
reduce HIV/AIDs people infected.

WHY IS THE DISEASE HARD TO ERADICATE IN THE COMMUNITY AND HOW

DOES

IT

AFFECT

THE

PEOPLE?

HIV stigma and discrimination in Kenya

Most people of the community see HIV/Aids as a taboo, and it not allow to be spoken about it.
Moreover it is seen as evil that God is punishing the evil dower in the community, Doctor Sarah
Kimaiyo, working at Nairobi hospital. People infected with HIV/AIDS are discriminated and not
shown love by the society. For example, many reports from Kenya have shown how pregnant
women often do not test for HIV because they fear stigmatization from their family or healthcare
workers. 64 : http://www.avert.org/hiv-aids-kenya.htm#sthash.N4rtX8b2.dpuf. This will increase
the spread of the disease as the victim doesnt knows if is HIV/AIDs carrier for a long time,

spreading to the people and the baby is it is a pregnant woman. The inflected people are
discriminated by the family members and even some are isolated because of the fear that they are
going to be infected by the victim, they do not well feed the victim with balance diet. This will
make the victim weak and easily die when they are expose to other disease, like tuberculosis.

Cultural practices

There are a lot of cultural practices that facilitate the spread of HIV/AIDs disease, this is still a
great set back that the government and the people are working hard eradicate the disease other
communities are practicing some cultural practice that causes the spread of the pandemic
diseases. The practices are male and female circumcision on some Plain Nilotic communities in
Kenya, they are Kalenjin, Samburu and Massai, Said professor Njoroge at Kenyatta university.

images of female genital mutilation types.

The communities highly values this cultural practices, thus the community as made it mandatory
to every teenage at the age of 14.Most of the communities are not well educated on how the
disease spreads, during circumcision boys of the same age group are summon and taught the
ways of their culture then a circumcision practices is done as a covenant, the circumcision is seen
as the sealing of the covenant. The boys penis foreskin is chopped of using a shape knife, the
same knife is used to perform the operation on the remaining boys, and these will definitely
make their blood mixed up spreading the disease. Girls on the other hand are mutilated causing
high risk of HIV/AIDs being spread if there is one victim infected. Other than the risk of

contracting HIV/AIDs, boys and girl undergoing the process, sometimes bleed to dead. Scientist
have come up in a way that they perform the operation at hospital or home but still the
community doesnt like it. The other practice is girls are force to be married at an early age of
13, moreover they are being married by the old rich men in the community, who already have
two to three wife. This practice is so oppressive to the young girls who have dreams in their lives
to be great people in the society. The bride being a polygamy increase the chances of being
HIV/AIDS positive and the majority of girls being married at early age are at high risk of
contracting the disease.

The government should find ways of educating the people on how to handle this issue, they
should stop all early marriages and female genital mutilation this will be of great assent, boys on
the other hand should be circumcise with a specialist who understand how the pandemic disease
spreads. Parent wanting just dowry on from their daughter marriage, should be sued and charged
accordingly, this will reduce the rate of the disease spreading.

African countries percentages of female mutilation

DRUGS USES.

Drug uses are at high risk of having HIV/AIDS this is proven by the percentage they have them
being victims. In 2011, an estimated 18.3 percent of people who inject drugs in Kenya were
living with HIV. The majority of PWID are concentrated in specific geographical areas such as
Nairobi and Mombasa.http://www.avert.org/hiv-aids-kenya.htm#sthash.CfGKN4lo.dpuf. This is
according to survey done. For this the government should fight harder on opening guide and
counseling schools and also teach students at schools at their early age.

PROSTITUTION

Prostitution contributes heavily on the spread of this pandemic disease, Women in Kenyans cities
such as Nairobi see prostitution as easy source of money not knowing the dangers of contracting
the disease, they walk on streets seducing men and then lye with them and in return they are
given money. Prostitution is consider as source of employment like any other job that pays.
Women leaves their families home and goes for prostitution and in the morning they come home
with money that is use to feed the kids and pay school fees. In this case the very hard to eradicate
prostitution because it a source of income to most of an employed youths. The government then,
should come out very strongly and create jobs for them and they can pass law, to prohibit the act.
This will reduce the percentage of HIV/aids greatly. Slums are the key main point where the
HIV/AIDS is a highly spreads, this is because many people are idol and having no jobs to keep
the busy and give them a living, definitely the youth will be finding where to get money for
survival. They engage in robbery and on the process they will commit other offences like sexual
assaults. Woman on the other hand will participate on prostitution and being not well educated
on the spread of the pandemic disease, the disease will spread silently killing millions of people.
The government should greatly deal on the Kenyan slums, educating and distributing condoms
for protection because that is the place that the disease can quickly spread as the people are
uneducated and poverty is much.

ORGANIZETION AGENTS THAT FIGHT HIV/AIDS.

Kenyan people so fur have benefited really on the world organizations like NGOs, WHO and
other are non-profitable organization that requires just membership. This organization have come
out really strongly to help the community, they provide education to the community on how to
handle the pandemic disease people without getting infected with the disease. They distribute
condom for free to the community, treat the victim already by giving them ARVs and proper
diet, they educate the community by teaching them how to handle the disease without spreading
it. This organization on the other hand are facing difficulties in Handling and reaching the
HIV/AIDs victims, many counties in Africa are still having civil war and this is scary and risky
for the organization members to over their service. Most of Africans countries have poor
infrastructure in that it is impossible to transport medicines and important facilities by roods, the
Government should really look on the infrastructure and try to bring peace to the fighting
communities and this will make the organization more effective on the work of helping human.
(Flint, 2011) .

Conclusion

HIV/Aids is a silent killer killing millions of people every year, it is hard to explain to a person
about this disease unless you are a victim or in one way or the other you are affected, lets take in
this situation were ten families lost their love parent, this includes father, mother, grandmother
and grandfather. The orphans who are the kids will definitely suffer, some will loss lifes, other
will grow and be thugs in the society because of life forcing them to be that way they are for
survival. According to the interview done Mr. Evans on Kenyan students, Elphas Maiyo,

Anthony Rotich, Cosmas Boit, Daniel Cheruiyot studying at university of Texas at El Paso, they
were all driving a point that the government should first introduce HIV/AIDs disease as a
compulsory lesson in both High school and primary school. They should create jobs for youths.
This will reduce the spread of the disease by 98 percentage, as everybody will be busy occupied
by work and more they will be having the knowledge on how the disease spread.