Thirty years since we started hearing of HIV and many people in Kenya still consider those living with HIV as immoral and living with the virus as a punishment for sins they have committed.
This being the case, people living with HIV continue to be stigmatized. As a result, many people living with HIV simply keep quiet because when they disclose their HIV status they are in essence revealing that they are “immoral”, notwithstanding that the HIV virus has several transmission modes.
Kwamboka, a former inmate at Lang’ata Women’s Prison, Nairobi had been jailed for possession of stolen property. Although she had been aware of her HIV-positive status long before she was convicted, Kwamboka still had a difficult time coming to terms with what it means to be in prison and living with the virus. She had an option to disclose to the wardens for her to access antiretrovirals (ARVs) or keep quiet and let the virus take its toll on her immune system and general well being.
Although Kwamboka had lived with the virus, she had never disclosed her status to anyone except the caregivers where she was enrolled as a client. Thus telling the warders about her status was a major step that really scared her. Before her conviction she would go to a Comprehensive Care Clinic in Naivasha where no one knew her and where she would request for ARVs to last her for three months. Not one of the people closest to her knew of her status and she secretly and carefully hid and took her medicines. In prison, after defaulting for some time, and with her knowing the risk associated with defaulting, she came to terms with her acceptance issues. After seeing other inmates who were living positively live positively, she finally gathered her courage and told the wardens of her status.
Life in prison was not easy for Kwamboka, who was not used to being restricted. She would be accompanied by wardens to get her ARVS outside the detaining facility and she would go to the wardens when it was time for her medication.
People living with HIV are required to have a specialized diet, which many in Kenya cannot afford. In prison this was most challenging because the food served in prison barely satisfied Kwamboka’s hunger let alone nutritional requirements. Most of the time she felt dizzy for not having enough food and was always hungry.
She was also very self-conscious and always thought other people were staring at her because of her HIV status.
On completion of her term she was released but once outside she had difficulty coping, especially with her relatives who treated her like a criminal and realizing that she was HIV positive matters became worse because they associated her status with her convicted past.
“Si unaona vile Mungu anaadhibu wezi?” (Do you see how God punishes thieves?), they would say. “Anawapatia ukimwi hiyo ni kiboko ya Mungu.” (He gives them AIDS, which is His weapon.)
Such utterances really affected her psychologically and when twenty shillings went missing from her relative’s house, she was accused of having stolen it and kicked out of the house. Currently, she has no permanent abode and cohabits for a short time with various relatives and friends before relocating again. She survives on odd jobs to make ends meet. She keeps to herself and has no friends, whereas before she was outgoing she is now a shadow of her former self. She hopes to one day clear her name, which is just but a dream on a sky high shelf, but worth dreaming.
Mary* on the other hand, had been living lavishly in one of the upmarket estates in the city. Together with her husband she owns and operates a car rental and selling business in the city. One day they bought a car, which had reportedly been stolen and used to commit robbery with violence, without their knowledge. As a result, she was convicted and she is still serving her term. Mary was pregnant when this took place and, like most mothers, she had already prepared for the arrival of her child and had even made plans to have her baby at Nairobi Hospital.
Her incarceration was a big blow. She had to cope with so many things besides the knowledge that she would have her baby in prison. She was used to living large, and life in prison was definitely not her cup of tea, which she nevertheless had to drink. Like Kwamboka, she also had issues adapting to her life in prison. She eventually gave birth in prison, the last place she would have dreamed of even in her worst nightmare. Mary has fears though that torment her; the fears of raising a child in prison and what will happen when eventually she is released? But at the moment, she is living positively.
