Within weeks, he realised he had a sexually transmitted infection STI and visited a government hospital to seek treatment. But the year-old business management graduate said his experience there was so horrible it made him develop a phobia of public hospitals. At the government hospital where he had sought treatment for gonorrhoea, year-old Francis Onyango says the doctor attending to him called his colleagues into the room to mock him.
So he sought solace in church instead. Strict government laws against homosexuality mean that the organisation cannot carry out a comprehensive census, according to Kelly Kigera, an administrator at GALCK.
Human rights researchers and activists have documented a steady rise of hostility against gay people including harassment by government forces in Kenya, which is still a conservative society.
The Kenyan constitution guarantees every citizen the right to healthcare access without discrimination but healthcare workers continue to violate this provision, especially as gay men stay silent for fear of harassment or stigma. The Kenyan Penal Code criminalises consensual same-sex relationships and marriage, with jail sentences ranging from years. Police officers frequently use this to harass and extort gay people who are then forced to bribe their way out of custody.
With homophobia all around them, gay people like Ndiretu and Onyango in Kenya are shunning government hospitals and resorting to unconventional methods of treating sexually transmitted infections. While Onyango was lucky to get help from a gay rights lobby group which facilitated his treatment at a private facility, Ndiretu was not so lucky.
