Hiv/Aids in Kenya
Final Paper
Dr. Howard
HL 120
Doug Spada
AIDS in Kenya
Kenya lies across the equator in east-central Africa on the coast of the Indian Ocean. It is twice the size of Nevada. Kenya borders Somalia to the east, Ethiopia to the north, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan to the northwest. In the north, the land is arid; the southwestern corner is in the fertile Lake Victoria Basin; and a length of the eastern depression of the Great Rift Valley separates western highlands form those that rise from the lowland coastal strip (www.aidsandafrica.com). The population of Kenya broken down is Men: 900,000 Women: 1.1 million. There are two million adults and the percentage of those adults infected is nearly 14% (Yamano, 2005). Work-related mobility often creates an imbalance in the gender ratio proportion of women to men. This creates the environment which sex partner sharing is normal. Examples of this would be a man having more than one wife. At truck stops the women sex workers outnumber the vendors and drink shop owners which are positions held by men. In mining camps the very opposite is true where men greatly outnumber the women. In both situations same sex partner sharing allows the virus to flourish (Yamano, 2005).
There are diverse cultural rules in Kenya, given the presence of 40 indigenous cultures and ethnic groups (ww.aidsandafrica.com). These groups have different languages and social structures as well as differing cultural beliefs and practices. Some of these practices, such as wide inheritance, taking the wife of a diseased relative to be their own and polygamy conflict with HIV prevention. In most of these communities, men decide on issues of economic productivity such as land, capital, and technology. Since men have more education and economic power than women cultural beliefs also favor men allowing them to make decisions that may not favor a women’s well being. Since women are lower ranked socially when they are
Dr. Howard
HL 120
Doug Spada
AIDS in Kenya
Kenya lies across the equator in east-central Africa on the coast of the Indian Ocean. It is twice the size of Nevada. Kenya borders Somalia to the east, Ethiopia to the north, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan to the northwest. In the north, the land is arid; the southwestern corner is in the fertile Lake Victoria Basin; and a length of the eastern depression of the Great Rift Valley separates western highlands form those that rise from the lowland coastal strip (www.aidsandafrica.com). The population of Kenya broken down is Men: 900,000 Women: 1.1 million. There are two million adults and the percentage of those adults infected is nearly 14% (Yamano, 2005). Work-related mobility often creates an imbalance in the gender ratio proportion of women to men. This creates the environment which sex partner sharing is normal. Examples of this would be a man having more than one wife. At truck stops the women sex workers outnumber the vendors and drink shop owners which are positions held by men. In mining camps the very opposite is true where men greatly outnumber the women. In both situations same sex partner sharing allows the virus to flourish (Yamano, 2005).
There are diverse cultural rules in Kenya, given the presence of 40 indigenous cultures and ethnic groups (ww.aidsandafrica.com). These groups have different languages and social structures as well as differing cultural beliefs and practices. Some of these practices, such as wide inheritance, taking the wife of a diseased relative to be their own and polygamy conflict with HIV prevention. In most of these communities, men decide on issues of economic productivity such as land, capital, and technology. Since men have more education and economic power than women cultural beliefs also favor men allowing them to make decisions that may not favor a women’s well being. Since women are lower ranked socially when they are