Nairobi — The story of Aids in Kenya, for more than three decades now, has been one of loss, pain and hardly any cheer to write about.

Yet earlier on, countries such as India and Brazil took advantage of the silver lining around the Aids cloud and have since turned the catastrophe into an opportunity. The two are major manufacturers and exporters of generic anti-retroviral drugs -- some of the fastest moving medicines in the world, with huge financing from the global community.

Seizing the opportunity, the private sector in India and Brazil has built a formidable pharmaceutical research and production capacity that is now a source of foreign income and quality employment.

The major markets for these medicines are in Africa, where infection rates remain among the highest in the world. The combined bill of importing ARVs and malaria generic medicines in Kenya alone runs into billions of shilling every year. This contradicts claims that Kenya has one of the most advanced pharmaceutical industries in the region.

Indeed, Kenya has significant capacity to produce high quality malaria and ARV medicines. Thus it came as a surprise to many when recently, a senior government official said the country would soon import ARVs from neighbouring Uganda.

Kenya's production capacity remains idle as it continues to export high value jobs to India, Brazil and China. And the presence of substandard locally manufactured and imported products in the country has greatly eroded international confidence in our capacity to service huge donor funded medicine procurement programmes.

This, coupled with corruption, has denied Kenya the opportunity to profit from the multi-billion HIV and malaria pharmaceutical opportunities. While the newly revamped Kazi Kwa Vijana programme is commendable, specialised sectors must be encouraged to create and retain high quality jobs in the country.