Health Rights in Kenya

(Part 1)

During responses to Maina Kiai’s keynote presentation, Winifred Lichuma used the Treatment Action Campaign’s successful lawsuit against the South African government as an example of the power of the collective voice and spirit of the people. The lawsuit demanded that the government provide intervention to prevent mother to child HIV transmission among pregnant women. Having worked with the Treatment Action Campaign in 2001 and 2002, I remembered how TAC provided education and outreach through their Treatment Literacy mobile workshops—which engaged people in both urban and rural townships in changing the government response to HIV/AIDS. They based their campaign on the very progressive South African Constitution. Winifred acknowledged the Kenyan Constitution does not have the same progressive language as South Africa’s Constitution, but advocated for similar action and involvement in Kenya. Getting such language incorporated into the Constitution and getting similar levels of involvement in campaigns would greatly benefit Kenyans.

I remembered how TAC leadership was so involved and invested in their people. I thought about the words of one of my friends and personal heroes Mandla Majola, the TAC provincial organizer from the township of Gugulethu, who once told me that people are in need of leadership but in order to be a true leader the people must know and trust their leader, and the leader must know his or her community and people and to earn their trust. Mandla told me that sheep instinctively know not only the smell of their shepherd but also can sense the care of their shepherd. He gained people’s trust by getting to know them and profoundly caring about their welfare. The Treatment Action Campaign were some of the first activists I had ever met, and they moved me to want to be part of their work in South Africa.

I see in this Kenyan conference similar rumblings of intelligence, commitment, activism and demand for care, and I hear the frustration and burnout of health care workers feeling heavily burdened and demoralized. Activists and people living with illness, abuse and disregard are fed up and angry at a system that is not serving their needs. I know this tremendous anger can translate into tremendous energy, and I am grateful to have this exposure to human rights issues in Kenya.

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