The Kenyan government has drafted a law that would outlaw discrimination against people infected with HIV or full-blown Aids, a junior minister said on Wednesday.
”The draft law will make it a criminal offence to discriminate against anyone on the basis of their HIV status,” said Robinson Githae, the Assistant Minister of Justice.
He said the draft HIV/Aids Prevention and Control Bill was approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday and will soon be presented in Parliament for debate.
The draft law would make it illegal for employers to deny anyone a job or promotion because they are infected with HIV.
If the law is passed, it would also be illegal for colleges to refuse to admit students if they are infected with the Aids-causing virus, Githae said.
The law would make the deliberate spreading of the virus a criminal offence, he said.
Insurance companies would be forbidden from denying services to people infected with the HI virus or charging them higher premiums under the law..
Last week, Kenya’s Health Ministry launched a programme to supply subsidised anti-retroviral drugs to 6 000 people infected with HIV.
The government estimates that about 2,5-million Kenyans are HIV-positive and that about 700 people die of Aids every day in the East African country.
The 13th International Conference on Aids and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa is being held in Nairobi to assess the continent’s struggle against the disease, which afflicts about 30-million people living south of the Sahara. — Sapa-AFP
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