Health Rights in Kenya

I have worked in HIV care for over 20 years and for the past 6 years I have spent much time working in HIV care and treatment programs in sub-Saharan Africa. But I haven’t been so openly exposed to human rights issues in a setting like this, where rights are discussed and debated among health care workers, human rights activists and policy makers, as I am at this conference. I am grateful to Physicians for Human Rights for opening my eyes and ears to concepts that previously never made it past the thinking stage.

Chris Shaw and Abel Onyango talk during a break in the conference

It’s the end of day, and I am tired and jet lagged, yet I can’t stop thinking about what has transpired in both the formal presentations and the personal conversations. I want to review my notes and remember what was communicated among and by my Kenyan counterparts who live and breathe these challenging issues of inequality, limited resources, human rights dilemmas and violations—some entrenched in their own policies or lack of policies and some emanating from the West and US policies that further stigmatize people and obstruct social, psychological and human progress.

In his keynote presentation Maina Kiai, Chairman of the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights, spoke passionately on the barriers to health care and human rights. He reminded conference participants that government does not have money per se, that any money available belongs to the people and government is but an agent of allocating and ensuring available money is equitably delivered to the people. He challenged the participants to hold government accountable for the ethical delivery of this funding. He acknowledged the burden of poverty as an obstacle to ensuring human rights and health care, and he addressed the problem of corruption as one of many obstacles.

Chairman Kiai openly discussed the previous government’s diversion of 130 billion Kenya shillings from health coffers to overseas accounts, which to this day have not been returned. He detailed the types of health services and programs the stolen money could potentially have funded, and he encouraged all in attendance to be proactive in ensuring health service accountability. “When people in government take money hard questions must be asked.” Chairman Kiai used the Kenyan elections—known as “3 in 1,” whereby the President, Ministers of Parliament and local officials are elected together, based on party affiliation, rather than on indvidual merit or on their commitment to the people—as an example of not challenging and changing the status quo, even when the end result either hurts them and serves no direct benefit to them or their community.

Paul M is an openly HIV positive man who has been an energetic presence at the conference. He is so justifiably angry when he speaks to us about the unjust US policy requiring HIV positive individuals to have their condition stamped on their visas and limiting their US visits to two weeks. This policy further stigmatizes an already over-stigmatized group of people. It doesn’t make sense to him or to anyone else at the conference, which is packed with nurses, doctors, journalists, anthropologists, ministry of health officers, pastors, social workers, policy makers, human rights activists and people living with HIV and or AIDS and their collective energetic frustration and anger is encouraging.