By ATONYE GATHURA
Kenya; Kenya is among countries told to legalise homosexuality, prostitution and drug injecting or lose donor funding at the ongoing international Aids conference in Melbourne, Australia.
In a keynote speech witnessed by UNAids Executive Director Michael Sidibe, retired Australian high court judge Michael Kirby angrily told such countries, most of them in Africa, to make the activities legal or keep their begging bowls.
Kirby was reported verbatim saying patience was wearing thin among Western countries which donated roughly half of the $19 billion in funds to fight Aids in developing economies last year.
“They cannot expect taxpayers in other countries to shell out, indefinitely, huge funds for anti-retroviral drugs if they simply refuse to reform their own laws and policies to help their own citizens,” reported Rappler, a social news network.
Nobel laureate Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, who co-discoverered HIV, also directed more fire to these countries, accusing them of creating conditions that let HIV spread like poison.
“We need to shout out loud that we will not stand idly by when governments, in violation of all human rights principles, are enforcing monstrous laws that only marginalise populations that are already the most vulnerable in society,” he said.
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The 12,000 delegates attending the 20th International Aids Conference, with several from Kenya, are also signing the “Melbourne Declaration”. The declaration, which may in future be used to determine who gets funding, insists all gay, lesbian and transgender people be entitled to equal rights and access to HIV care.
