John Adoyi, PBA Journalism MenteeCommercial s3x workers in Kenya are reportedly feeling the heat of acute shortage of condom as they have been forced to wash and reuse condoms to service their clients.
According to a report by Kenya’s Nation Newspaper, S3x workers in Busia County, one of the counties in the East African country, said they have had to resort to collecting used condoms from trash cans and also washing the ones they have used before for other jobs.
Civil society groups raised the alarm of acute shortage of condoms in the country when the festive period was approaching.
According to reports, about 455 million condoms are needed by Kenyans annually but only 150 million are currently being distributed.
Demand is outweighing supply and public health facilities and civil society groups ran out of condoms.
The scarcity has resulted to hike in price of the commodity.
This is the second time in 2022 the country is experiencing acute shortage of condom. Earlier this year, the country also experienced acute condom shortage resulting in men using Plastic bags as protection.
People reportedly broke into warehouses of civil society groups to steal condoms.
The Global Fund, a Switzerland-based organisation that funds governments to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria reported that 1.1 million condoms went missing at the Kenya Medical Supply Authority (Kemsa). The Organisation said it suspected that the condoms were resold to private pharmaceutical companies.
Currently, one condom goes for about 200 Kenyan Shillings (720 Naira) and this is affecting the business of s3x workers in the country.
Eunice, one of the s3x workers told reporters that she usually have a client that pays her well but the lack of condom from both of them almost made her lose her pay for the day.
Eunice said in order not to lose her money which is essential in feeding her family of seven, she asked her friend for a condom and she didn’t have one. “I picked a used condom from the dustbin and washed it. I did this to protect myself.”
Eunice said the condom was not sufficient because it got torn and they had to resort to unprotected s3x which resulted in her contracting Syphilis.
Another s3x worker said she now washes used condoms and reuse for her protection since most condom dispensers in her town have run out of stock..
HIV prevention organisations, health centres in Kenya are calling on the government to come to aid of the more than hundred and thirty thousand sex workers in the country.
One of the civil society groups in Kenya, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) through its Kenya director, Dr. Samuel Kinyanjui, appealed to the government in the country to come up with mechanisms to solve the problem of condom shortage.
“We urge the government to come up with a mechanism of stemming the acute shortage of condoms that has now become routine,” Dr. Kinyanjui said.
Faith Ndung’u who is Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF-Kenya) Programmes development and advocacy manager says the government should work on bringing down taxes imposed on condom importation, adding that there are many development partners who would want to help but are prevented by high taxation.
“There are many partners who would voluntarily step in and help the government bridge the deficit gap. Unfortunately, the aggregate tax regime slammed on condom procurements are Shilling for shilling. The government should come up with friendly corroborative policies,” she said.
Kenya is the largest economy in East Africa but in 2022, 17 per cent of Kenya’s population lived below 1.90 U.S. dollars per day. This means that over 8.9 million Kenyans out of 56 million population were in extreme poverty, most of whom were in rural areas.
Economic hardship was worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic and corruption in the system, pushing a lot of Kenyans to the brink of starvation, resulting in people using any means to survive.
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