Attorney General Paul Kihara Kariuki has opposed bid to seeking to decriminalise spread of HIV/Aids.
This is after six people living with HIV/Aids filed a petition before the High Court to quash the law criminalising spread of HIV stating that the law is discriminatory and violates constitution.
Kihara urged the court to take judicial notice of the fact that the country and in general Africa, continues to be ravaged by the scourge despite the scientific gains that have been made towards reducing the mortality rate.
“By passing the law, the legislature was not acting in a vacuum but responding to a situation in which the State needed to intervene,” states Kihara.
The law says that any person who deliberately and intentionally infects another with HIV or any other life threatening sexually transmitted disease is guilty of an offence, whether or not he or she is married to that other person.
The person shall be liable upon conviction to imprisonment for a term of not less that 15 years but which may be enhanced for life.
Recent years have seen the creation of HIV-specific laws that criminalize HIV transmission and exposure.
The push to apply criminal law to HIV exposure and transmission is often driven by the wish to respond to serious concerns about the ongoing rapid spread of HIV in many countries, coupled by what is perceived to be a failure of existing HIV prevention efforts. These concerns are legitimate.
Recently, some groups have begun to advocate for criminalization in response to the serious phenomenon of women being infected with HIV through sexual violence or by partners who do not reveal their HIV diagnoses to them.
While these issues must be urgently addressed, a closer analysis of the complex issues raised by criminalization of HIV exposure or transmission reveals that criminalization is unlikely to prevent new infections or reduce women’s vulnerability to HIV.
In fact, it may harm women rather than assist them, and negatively impact both public health and human rights.
