Hey Everyone, This is the situation in Kenya... NEWS EXTRA Homosexuality major cause of Aids spread in prisons Story by OLIVER MATHENGE Publication Date: 5/24/2008 Everyone in the Kenyan prisons — officers or inmates — knows about it, but no-one wishes to talk about it. The entrance to King’ong’o Prison in Nyeri. Photo/FILE So it came as a shock last week when the man in charge of health services in Kenya’s jails admitted that homosexuality is rampant in the facilities and is fuelling the Aids spread, both inside and outside when inmates are freed to rejoin the society. Dr John Kibosia, the director of health services in charge of the prison department, admits that homosexuality is rife in the prisons and must be stopped. Addressing journalists at the prisons headquarters in Nairobi last week, he said the vice is on the increase, adding that the department had commissioned a local HIV/Aids firm, Liverpool VCT, to investigate the matter to enable the Government to intervene. Liverpool VCT carries out research into the country’s policy on HIV/Aids and other sexually transmitted diseases. Dr Kibosia noted that the country can no longer pretend that homosexuality does not exist in prisons, and urged that the Goverrnment deal with as a matter of urgency. He will present the research findings at an international conference in Mexico in August, he said. “Sometime back no-one would want to hear of sexuality in the prisons,” he pointed out. “We want to know why the vice is now rampant in our prisons and see how to get rid of it.” According to the doctor, people who practise the vice in prison are responsible for the HIV/Aids spread even ouside the prisons, arguing that the inmates continue with the act even after they are released. Unprotected sex The vice is mainly responsible for the rising rate of HIV and Aids infection among prisoners, he added. “This is because most prisoners are afraid to report to the authorities how they contract the virus for fear of reprisals. Another reason is that prisoners have unprotected sex, increasing the chances of infection.” Under the Kenyan law, male-on-male sex is a criminal offence that carries a jail sentence of five to 14 years. But the legislation is criticised for excluding from the Government’s HIV/Aids prevention and advocacy programmes men who have sex with fellow men. Experts argue that the main reason for rampant homosexuality among prisoners in Kenya is that their sexual needs are not met. Former prisoners say the vice is so deep-rooted that very few men come out of prison without having engaged in it. The rising number of rape and other forms of sexual attack are said to be caused by congestion. “I remember at one time when the prison officers begged prisoners to desist from raping colleagues,” says a man, who spent one and a half years at the Kamiti maximum security prison, who does not wish to be identified by name. “Many freed inmates say rape in the prisons is fiction until one spends a day behind those walls.” He adds that some prisoners even change their lifestyles and the way they carry themselves and behave like women. Mr James Maina who says he spent some time at the Naivasha maximum-security prison, adds that most prisoners get tired of masturbation and resort to sodomy, which he says is also rife in the jails. They target new-comers or colleagues who cannot fight back. “At times, some do it consensually, but others are forced into it. It is a totally different world behind those walls,” he says. Last year, the prisons service was reported as having collected data on the spread of HIV/Aids in the facilities from 13 of the countries’ 90 facilities over a two-year period. The research found an HIV-infection rate of almost 10 per cent, about twice the national average. Kenya’s prisons occupancy level is currently said to be over 300 per cent, with 96 per cent of the inmates being male. According to Dr Kibor, the 90 jails were built to comfortably accommodate 12,000 inmates, but are now holding about 48,000. Conjugal visits Owing to this congestion, the prisons face a major disaster due to the spread of HIV-related ailments such as tuberculosis. Kenya is said to have shied away from addressing the possibility of allowing sex in prison, making it impossible to fight HIV/Aids in the facilities. Last year, the National Aids Control Council noted that there had been calls for conjugal visits to be allowed as well as the establishment of prison HIV/Aids prison-prevention programmes. Homosexuality and other same-sex relationships remain a taboo subject in Kenya. But, like in most African countries, networks of gays and lesbians have become a common feature in Kenya, although many are said to adopt a heterosexual lifestyle to confuse the issue. Now homosexuality has encroached upon even boarding schools and colleges. A survey by a local research company two years ago indicated that 32 per cent of Kenyans felt that gays and lesbians should be accepted by society.