Rights group TAC to tackle Kenyan embassy in Pretoria over ARV shortages
The stock-outs have persisted since February, due to a dispute between the Kenyan government and the United States Agency for International Development.
PRETORIA, May 13 (ANA) – Rights gruop Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) was on Thursday set to picket at the Kenyan High Commission in Pretoria in solidarity with people living with HIV in the East African country whose lives are at risk due to shortages of antiretroviral drugs.
Kenya, which has about 1.5 million people living with HIV/Aids, is experiencing an acute shortage of the drugs because the United States Agency for International Development (USAIDS) has reportedly halted supply through the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority, accusing the institution of corruption and mismanagement.
The stock-outs have persisted since February as the dispute rages, TAC national chairwoman Sibongile Tshabalala said.
“We are extremely concerned that this stalemate is putting the lives of people living with HIV in Kenya at risk. People living with HIV are receiving little to no ARVs and there is no access to viral load testing and paediatric medication,” she said.
“This means people are forced to go back to the clinic again and again, costing time and money, only to be provided with one week’s supply of ARVs. This is even more worrying during the time of Covid-19 when people should be given more not less medicines.”
Moreover, ARVs for children living with HIV are completely out of stock in Kenya, and mothers are being forced to share their own medicines, Tshabalala said.
“The situation is unacceptable,” she said.
TAC general secretary Anele Yawa said the activists in Pretoria would demand that the Nairobi government ensured that people living with HIV received the lifesaving drugs.
“As people living with HIV, we understand the importance of taking treatment consistently in order to protect our long term health and that of our partners,” said Yawa.
“When we are faced with stock-outs, the power to adhere is taken out of our hands. We demand action from the government of Kenya to ensure people living with HIV urgently get the ARVs they need.”
TAC said it would call on Kenyan High Commissioner Catherine Muigai Mwangi to reach out to her country’s health ministry, the U.S. state department and Kenyan networks of people living with HIV to ensure the issue was resolved.
– African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Stella Mapenzauswa
