-Caveat Lector-
No Sex for Two Years, Moi Urges Kenyan People
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20010712_167.html
By Simon Denyer
NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) - President Daniel arap Moi has urged Kenyans to
abstain from sex for at least two years to try to curb the spread of AIDS,
newspapers reported on Thursday.
Moi was speaking after the government announced plans on Wednesday to
import 300 million condoms to fight AIDS, a move which has drawn criticism
from religious leaders.
"As a president, I am shy that I am spending millions of shillings
importing those things," Moi told a meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society
of Kenya on Wednesday.
As a further preventive measure, Moi pleaded with Kenyans to refrain from
sex "even for only two years," saying that was the best way to check the
epidemic.
Kenyan Health Ministry experts estimate that 700 Kenyans die every day of
AIDS, and a further 2.2 million are infected with HIV in a population of
30 million.
The plan to import condoms ran into swift opposition from religious
leaders who believe the government should be promoting abstinence more
actively.
"Importing such a huge consignment of condoms implies that the government
sanctions promiscuity," said the Catholic Organization the Kenya Episcopal
Conference in a statement. "The church is saddened to know that our
government has given in to donor pressures clearly aimed at
commercialising AIDS at the expense of the lives of our people," it said.
The Secretary-General of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya,
Sheikh Mohamed Dor, said the country was "committing suicide" importing so
many condoms, a move he said would encourage young people to experiment
with sex.
Ultimately, he said, the young would abandon the condoms and have
unprotected sex. "This will just increase the number of cases of AIDS," he
told Reuters.
WAKING UP TO THE CRISIS
While some Kenyans on the streets of the capital Nairobi applauded Moi's
call to abstain, others said they would continue to have sex and would not
use condoms.
"It's like eating a sweet with a wrapper, you cannot do that," said taxi
driver James Karijoki. "You have to have sex, those who will die will die,
and whoever does not get AIDS, then good for him," he said.
But others said as the death toll mounted from AIDS, growing numbers of
men were increasingly willing to use protection.
"It's kind of hard to tell guys to keep off, so this measure of bringing
in more condoms into the country is a pretty brilliant idea," said Wangui
Wambugu, a young woman strolling down one of the main shopping streets.
After a slow start, Kenya's government is finally beginning to wake up to
the scale of the disaster confronting the East African country as a result
of AIDS.
In late 1999, Moi declared the epidemic a national disaster and set up a
National AIDS Control Council.
Last month, Kenya's parliament became only the second in Africa to pass
legislation which would allow the country to import and manufacture cheap
generic medicines.
Moi also called last month for the death penalty for people who knowingly
infect others with HIV/AIDS, to deter men from passing the disease to
vulnerable younger women.
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