Reality check: HIV/AIDS kills Kenya's pastoralists in record numbers

Turkana dancers. Photo @Eloto

Those who keep reminding us about Kenya's gains in its fight against HIV/AIDS should just repackage their pontifications and take time off their daily routines and carry out a deep reflection. On top of these, they should get in touch with the reality on the ground - especially in the forgotten jungles in the north of Kenya. 

Please forget about those numbers churned out by your various arms of government. They do not tell any truth about the plight of those suffering from TB & HIV/AIDS. There exists two cases: either those who fabricate those figures know the truth and deliberately choose to suppress it, or they have never taken a serious look into the happenings outside their Nairobi offices. 

If unchecked, HIV/AIDS will soon top the list of causes of deaths among pastoralists. Even with its infamous tag as Kenya's insecurity (read banditry) hot-spot, HIV/AIDS coupled with its cousin, TB are tormenting people in Turkana County in a manner never seen before. Illiteracy, some clever people say, should be blamed for this.

But I think they are dead wrong. Banking on illiteracy is akin to heaping condemnations on HIV victims for being unschooled. Yes, more than fifty percent of people in Turkana practice nomadic pastoralism. A majority of them have no formal schooling. Media penetration in the region is still in its zeros. The county - bluntly speaking - is locked.

But let truth be our guiding star. Kenya's nomadic pastoralists are victims of a lazy officialdom that sees no reason to innovate, an officialdom that is too fixated with old redundant thinking. HIV and many other diseases are having a field day felling pastoralists because those who ought to provide them with vital information and services believe doing so will undermine their coveted positions. 

I am told health services were devolved long time ago. Again, someone reminded me that Kenya's health policy orientation is still an occupation of some big shots in Nairobi's Afya house. And so my questions come in: when will we confront this invisible deadly elephant that is silently decimating hundreds of Kenyans out there? When will we recognize the central role of information sharing as a means of countering diseases' onslaughts?

Equipping one or two health facilities that are located miles away from one another, and from people in need amounts to playing mind games with Kenyans. More ground work is needed. 

People, find time to examine Kenya's health map to stomach the pain we cause to our fellow compatriots. 

We have huge proportions of our herder-communities who have never been reached by government and non-government bodies charged with the responsibility of fighting sexually transmitted infections (STIs). It is common to spot these guys preaching to already informed chaps in towns. One, then, is left to wonder if those living outside towns are not entitled to this information. It is like STIs attack town people alone.

I think this is due to the existence of a false narrative along non/government corridors. These people think pastoralists live in "closed settings" that naturally keep them off STIs way. But they must be reminded that times have changed. All Kenyans - including pastoralists - are at risk of being hit by STIs projectiles. "Closed settings" do not exist anymore.

A pastoralist now stands a higher risk of contracting STIs due to the twin problems of ignorance (absence of information) and poverty. Sex pests too have joined the fray. They see pastoralists’ women and girls as easy targets. Join the dots and get the bigger picture. Danger lurks ahead.

We used to have TB camps - popularly called TB Manyattas - at major hospitals in northern Kenya. I am not sure if they still exist today. But one thing I know: these manyattas have never been decentralized to the villages. This is despite the fact that TB kills, and it kills in record numbers. We still see no reason to stop pointing fingers at victims. We have calmly retreated to our cocoons to lampoon pastoralists for being untidy and failing to "evolve with time".

Someone must do something now. Health sector reforms will only be meaningful if they touch those at the peripheries of our policy framework. Pastoralists have suffered for a long time. It is time to give them at least the basics - just vital information and services plus TB Manyattas. 

A healthy pastoralist is a healthy Kenya. Time we breathed life into this truism.

Lemukol Ng'asike is an architect. Twitter:  @mlemukol.