Kenyan sex workers living with HIV face persistent human rights violations, a report has found, citing lack of access to ARVs while in custody.
The report released on Monday ahead of World Aids Day termed the experiences of the sex workers a "disturbing pattern" in the violation of their rights to healthcare and equality in law.
It quoted a sex worker from Kiambu county who said: "Yes, I was aware of my HIV status when I was arrested but I didn’t dare ask for a chance to send for my medicine as I did not want to disclose my status to them." "I stayed for the whole week without medication," the woman added in the report titled 'Speaking Out: Personal testimonies of rights violations experienced by sex workers in Kenya'.
Other violations concerned accessing health services, most of 30 participants from Nairobi, Mombasa, Kiambu, Machakos and Kisumu counties they lacked "accessible and acceptable health services". Others cited violation following HIV diagnosis, the revelation of their status, discrimination and poor service and the denial of services. The report said 13 of the participants recounted experiences entailing the violation of their privacy and confidentiality in relation to their work. They said they were asked questions that had nothing to do with the health services they sought.
"The doctor took my phone, scrolled and found a contact saved ‘mama’. He dialled it and called my mother. My mother came and she was informed of my HIV status," one said. Another said: The worst scenario I have gone through is when I went to pick my ARVs but unfortunately my neighbour had gone to the same facility for treatment. As you know in the centres, there is a specific room for positive people where we take our ARVs from."
"After she saw me entering that room, she went and told my neighbourhood negatives things about me having discovered my status and my troubles started.” The country coordinator of the Kenya Sex Workers Alliance said the findings were not surprising, the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+) reported. "Sadly we regularly see examples of sex workers rights being abused.
They are discriminated against and treated as second-class citizens by healthcare workers and law enforcement officers," Phelister Abdalla said. "For sex workers who are also living with HIV, the discrimination is even worse." The human rights violations against people living with HIV are holding back Kenya's response, said Nelson Otwoma, the executive director of the National Empowerment Network for Persons Living with HIV/Aids.
"We stand with our partners to ensure the new Kenyan Aids Strategic Framework moves our country towards zero discrimination against all people living with HIV," Otwoma said.
The report was released at the International Conference on Aids and STIs in Africa in Harare, Zimbabwe. The study was part of a community-led evidence and advocacy project coordinated by the GNP+, called the 'Human Rights Count for Key Populations Living with HIV'. It was coordinated by the GNP+ and led by the NEPHAK in collaboration with the Kenya Sex Workers Alliance and the Bar Hostess Empowerment and Support Programme. During celebrations to mark the World Aids Day, the World Health Organization underlined that expanding antiretroviral therapy to all people living with HIV is key to ending the Aids pandemic within a generation.
“The MDGs of reversing the HIV epidemic were reached ahead of the 2015 deadline - an incredible achievement that testifies to the power of national action and international solidarity," said director general Margaret Chan. A WHO report stated that since the epidemic reached its peak in 2004, the number of deaths has declined by 42 per cent and 7.8 million lives saved over the last 15 years. The number of new infections has decreased by 35 per cent in the 21st century. - See more at: http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/hiv-kenyan-sex-workers-violated-report-says-world-aids-days-marked#sthash.M9Ulv1co.dpuf
