HIV / AIDS among Kenyan Youth :: HIV in Africa

In 2001, Sub-Saharan Africa recorded the highest number ofdeaths from HIV/ back up, with 29.4 million plenty living withAIDS 10 million young bulk and 3 million children. Amongthese, 12.2 million were women and 10.1 million men. In 2002,3.5 million new infections were reported. From this backdrop,Kenyans were inter descryed on their perceptions of switch on andcondom use within heterosexual relationships revealing thatdenial and silence played a major role in the escalation of thepandemic while sex activity differences, culture and power wereperceived as negatively impacting negotiation of sex andcondom use within Kenyan communities.Kagutui ka mucie gatihakagwo ageni.(The secrets of ones home ar not to be revealed to strangers)- Gikuyu proverbAIDS was a disease that shines in hush and thrives on secrecy. It wasprospering because people were choosing not to talk about it. It wasthis realization that provoked me to go wider, beyond my personalcircle, beyond the people I worked wi th. The quieter we keep it themore people it will affect and stigmatize, especially while peoplebelieve that AIDS affects some people and not others (Kaleeba 29).This article is based on semi structured interviews with four Kenyan menand women on how they perceive, and bring off sex and condom usewithin heterosexual relationships. It focuses on gender, culture andpower, and how these dynamics are projected, if at all, in participantsnegotiation of sexual relationships within the Kenyan community. Thepurpose of the study is to understand the relationship between gender,power and HIV/AIDS prevention.Sub-Saharan Africa has recently recorded the highest incidences ofdeath from HIV/AIDS with a total of 29.4 million people living with thedisease. Among these, ten million are young people aged fifteen totwenty four while tierce million are children under the age of fifteen. Inthe year 2002, 3.5 million new infections were reported (UNAIDS 2).One reason for this seemingly recent rise in t he number of infectionsis the result of years of denial and silence about the existence ofHIV/AIDS. Recent statistics indicate that Botswanas adult prevalenceSex, HIV/AIDS and Silence45rate for example, has peaked to 38.8 %, Lesotho 31%, Swaziland 33.4%and Zimbabwe 33.7%. In total, Africa experiences 6,000 AIDS relateddeaths per day and Kenya, 18 deaths per hour (UNAIDS 3).Researchers, educators and governments now suggest the need forculturally sensitive knowledge of sexual beliefs and practices as a wayforward to understanding and evaluating patterns of HIV/AIDStransmission in different communities, in view of designing effectiveintervention programs (Lansky 3).This paper focuses on a study of culture and HIV/AIDS, and whateffects gender differences and power might be having on HIV/AIDS