Mazera Ndurya
19 March 2006
Nairobi — Amid the din of swinging cranes and the rattle of heavy trucks, Francis Ruwa weaves through the gang of casual workers who are busy offloading cargo from a ship on the quayside at the port of Mombasa.
In his hand, he is carrying a bundle of pamphlets which he distributes to his colleagues as he moves on, occasionally making stopovers to exchange greetings and pass on a word of advice. Unless one pays attention, Ruwa could easily be mistaken for a salesman distributing promotional materials but he is on a campaign trail against HIV/Aids which has already claimed hundreds of employees at the prestigious state corporation.
Ruwa, an HIV positive person himself, is a leading peer educator who has learnt practically what it means to be a victim, making him not to shy away from talking about it and offering counsel to his colleagues on the dangers of the virus and the disease.
He came to the limelight when his employer, the Kenya Ports Authority, endorsed a controversial board decision to transfer all employees with HIV/Aids related illnesses from high-cost private hospitals in Mombasa to public hospitals because of the escalating cost of medication.
Medical bills were running into hundreds of millions of shillings because of employees with HIV related complications who were being admitted for longer periods in high cost hospitals.
But the issue was being discussed in hushed tones because no one wished to come out in the open to declare their HIV status for the fear of stigmatisation.
Ruwa, though, had the courage and made it known that he was HIV positive and would not be deterred from fighting for the rights of those infected with the virus.
Talking to him last year at the Bandari Clinic, the corporation's medical facility, where he had been undergoing treatment for the last six years, he said:
"We had to make the management understand that by being rigid and trying to control the purse strings, it was not making the situation any better but, in fact, worsening it."
For him, he needed a more caring attitude. As a driver, his condition would not have made it easier to handle the rigours of the steering wheel. "The nature of our illness required moderation in the work conditions and not arbitrary dismissal of workers on 'medical grounds'," he said.
But today, Ruwa has a new and pleasant story to tell, thanks to a struggle that has borne fruit. "I'm proud to say that KPA is today among the companies with the best policies towards HIV/Aids."
From his experience and struggle, Ruwa is the epitome of hope. He has championed the formation of a group at KPA that is undertaking counselling and encouraging workers to go for testing to determine their status and talk about it openly. He is the representative of the National Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV/Aids in Kenya from Kwale district.
He is a living example of how determination and openness changed his life and gave him a new lease of life at a time when his family had lost hope as his condition deteriorated. Perhaps the most significant thing about his case is that he has managed to realise his dream of raising a family. It was not easy but through the help of medical practitioners, Ruwa is father to a three-year-old and healthy baby girl.
His wife, too, is positive but their child is negative.
"I got married in 1998 and the following year, I fell sick and was in and out of hospital. Later it was diagnosed to be pneumonia but I did not know anything until my father, who is a laboratory technician at the Bandari clinic, undertook some tests and quietly did one on HIV too," Ruwa went on.
He said the father learnt of his son's status but kept quiet until he broached the issue with the medical officer of health. After some counselling for Ruwa and his wife, they agreed to take the test and the couple turned out to be positive. "The most difficult thing after we had been confirmed to be HIV positive was to come to terms with the situation," he says.
"At first," he says, "we used to fully cater for anti-retroviral drugs at Sh22,000 per month but, after lobbying, KPA agreed to cater for the treatment while the patient was required to foot 25 per cent of the cost of the drugs at the Bandari Clinic."
As an activist fighting stigma, Ruwa says the biggest challenge they face is to make the community understand that there is life beyond HIV and the need to treat those infected as normal human beings. KPA has recognised the contribution that Ruwa is making in sensitising people on the dangers of HIV/Aids.
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