Source: The Star
It has been 30 years since the first case of HIV was reported in Kenya. Although a lot has improved since then, including access to free anti-retroviral drugs, stigma is still rife.
In Kisii county, which has a prevalence rate of 8.9 per cent according to the 2012 UNAids data, stigma and discrimination are still high.
Kisii county Aids/STI co-ordinator Florence Ogero said stigma -- especially self stigma -- and discrimination are very common in the region. "Even the name referring to HIV in Kisii, 'Enyamoreo', depicts something 'thin'; it's very stigmatising. Sometimes people with HIV are seen as having been bewitched. These are among the causes of self stigma and discrimination," Ogero said.
Even though the national prevalence rate has gone down to 5.6 per cent, Kisii is among the top 10 counties with high HIV prevalence in Kenya.
It is 8am. Mary Kwamboka from Kemera village in Nyamira county, dressed in a red skirt and shoes that barely cover her toes, welcomes me to her clean mud house. With a caring smile, she diligently serves her husband breakfast before starting her chores.
Kwamboka is living with HIV but this has not deterred her from living her life fully. "When we are picking tea with a group of women, I sometimes tell them about my status but they do not believe me," she says as she carries on with her chores.
Kwamboka takes pride in taking care of her family of eight including a grandson. From the time she wakes up at 5am to get her children ready for school, she only rests at night when everyone is well fed and sleeping.
She and her husband Thomas Moire were diagnosed with HIV in 2009. Although her husband had a problem accepting his status at first, they have both accepted their condition and continue to work hard to bring up their children.
Moire is also living with disability. "I broke my leg when coming home from a drinking spree and although I felt better after a week of bed rest, my leg got worse."
Doctors treated him for different diseases without success. He believes HIV may have aggravated the problem because he had not been tested yet. "I think this is what caused the disability to the other leg," Moire says.
He adds that with the disability, he cannot do hard jobs as he gets back problems and very tired.
The family goes without lunch because they cannot afford three meals a day. Kwamboka works as a casual labourer picking tea for pay -- when she is not working at her husband's farm.
This involves walking four to six kilometres to get Sh100 after working from 7am to 4pm but she does not complain. "My husband assists in paying school fees for the children while I try to look for food. My HIV status has not prevented me from doing anything," she says.
