Status: 01.12.2021 3:56 a.m.
Because of the newly imposed import tariffs, condoms are becoming scarce in Kenya, which would otherwise be available free of charge or cheaply. The country with 1.5 million people infected with HIV threatens to be thrown back in the fight against infection.
“The country is facing an acute shortage of condoms,” said the evening news on Kenyan television. “Most health facilities, hotels and restaurants haven’t had free condoms in their boxes for a year,” said a newscaster. There is talk of a crisis because: Around one and a half million people live with the HI virus in the East African country.
The Kenyans believe that the free condoms are important to prevent infection. “Most people live on less than two dollars a day. They can’t afford to buy condoms,” says Bernadette Wirimu. And Bont Gitrich even points out: “It’s as if you go to war without weapons. Then you can only lose.”
The condoms are donated by the United Nations and other institutions. But the Kenyan authorities are now demanding import duties. The deliveries are stuck in customs.
Drug shortages
There are problems with some donors, says Catherine Ngugi, director of the national program on AIDS and sexually transmitted infections. “We are trying to fill the gaps.” The lack of condoms means another setback in the fight against the spread of the HI virus. At the beginning of the year there were already shortages of antiretroviral drugs that infected people need.
Kenya’s fight against HIV infection through tests, drug therapy and free condoms is now in danger of being thrown back. (Archive picture from 2014).
Image: picture alliance / dpa
Those affected demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Health. Because in addition to delivery difficulties due to the corona pandemic, a dispute over import duties was the cause. “We can no longer keep quiet,” said an activist to journalists at the time. “People are angry. They are being deprived of a drug because the government wants to declare donations.”
Anger among the population grows
Ultimately, an agreement was reached with the main donor USAID and the supplies could be distributed. But there is still no end in sight to the condom crisis. Anger among the population is growing. “The government needs us young people in particular,” says a young man named Kevin Lumbete. “I urge the president to provide free condoms. This is a national disaster.”
The effects could soon become apparent when more people become infected with the HIV virus again. Most recently, the number of newly infected people per year in Kenya fell continuously.