Kenyan Night Club Guards Steal Condoms, ‘Hamper the War’ Against AIDS

Night security guards in western Kenya have been accused of stealing condoms from night club dispensers and giving them to street vendors to sell on commission, consequently "interfering with the fight against HIV/AIDS," the Panafrican News Agency reports. Elly Ogutu, an official at the Futures Group, an antiAIDS non-governmental organization, told PANA on Monday, "A random survey has revealed that most of the dispensers in night clubs are not stocked," adding that the lack of condoms meant people were engaging in unprotected sex, and thus exposing them to HIV. Meanwhile, Dr. Abdalla Mohammed, chair of the National AIDS Control Council, "urged" relatives of individuals dying from AIDS to reveal the true cause of death at funerals. "The scourge has been declared a national disaster and the habit of concealing it as typhoid fever or witchcraft must stop," he said (Okoko, PANA, 2/26).