Three beautiful children aged 10, 6 and 2 years of a woman I knew are now orphans. She passed away yesterday morning due to a HIV related illness, tuberculosis. TB is the most common infection (and one with the highest death rate) associated with HIV and Aids in Kenya. She was in her mid 30's and was living with the father of her last born and only daughter. They moved in with their struggling grandmother today.
According to her loving mum and the good people of my neighbourhood, she died of blood cancer. Oddly, Leukemia doesn't have severe coughing or isolation which she went through for a while. This society (Like most in Africa) don't the habit of talking about that 'shameful disease'. Stigma is still ridiculously high in Kenya and HIV is locally termed as the whore's plague. No one wants to categorised as a sinner.
Africans would rather blame 'witchcraft' if the family giants don't come up with a more 'respectable' illness to take the fall for the death of their loved ones. Our traditions and 'religions' don't allow us to discuss immoral things like sex but we are allowed to blindly inherit spouses. We don't teach our children about sex because it is still largely considered a 'taboo' for parents to discuss sex with their young.
What is worrying is that Sub-Saharan Africa which includes my home country Kenya is home to 69 percent of all people living with HIV. This results to close to 70% deaths related to HIV and Aids. Kenya is one of the MOST affected countries by this epidemic in the WORLD and we are yet to publicly give it credit for any death. Sad, right?
With depressing figures like those being seen on UNAIDS DATA 2017 screen, I strongly feel we should start giving HIV and Aids it due credit. It is estimated to claim around 36,000 lives annually. This is happening though in the recent years Kenya has made some impressive strides in tackling the HIV epidemic. More needs to be done obviously if we are to keep that goal of reducing HIV infections to “near zero” by 2030.
Due to more stigmatisation, some society members suffer more in silence. The LGBT family I can say remain the worst hit as homosexuality is still considered a 'taboo' in Kenya. Prisoners too are in that line (You can see on the chart above there are even on records of prisoners living with HIV; yet sodomy exists in kenyan prisons) Lastly are commercial sex workers.
My heart is broken over Mama Nester's death but I am more devastated that what killed her will keep ending lives. This will happen while we hide behind traditions, religions and this annoying habit of branding sex as immorality.
Sources http://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/20170720_Data_book_2017_en.pdf
https://www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-around-world/sub-saharan-africa/kenya
Depressing write. I worry about my people!
With Love... Black Queen.