Petrelis Files

State Dept Silent on Murder of HIV Poz Kenyan Boy

Last week POZ magazine reported on the tragic killing of a 15-year-old HIV positive youth in Kenya:

April 13, 2006—At a funeral this week for a 15-year-old Kenyan boy beaten to death by his uncle for being HIV positive, the director of the Kenya Network of Women With AIDS said she would organize protests if the man is not arrested soon. The boy, Isaiah Gakuyo, was born with HIV.

A friend in Washington today sent me an update from the Reuters news wire about a demonstration in the streets of Nairobi protesting this brutal murder:

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Several hundred Kenyan AIDS activists took to the
streets of Nairobi on Thursday to protest at the killing of an
HIV-infected boy, whom they say was hacked with a garden fork by his
uncle because of his status.

A week after 15-year-old Isaiah Gakuyo was killed in Nyeri in central
Kenya, police were still looking for his uncle, who was the orphaned
boy's guardian.

About 300 people demonstrated on Thursday, saying the killing
highlighted the stigma faced by those living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya.

"The boy was facing violence on a daily basis," said Inviolata Mwali
Mmbwavi, one of the march organisers who runs a group working with
Kenyan AIDS victims. "We don't want this to happen again," she added to
Reuters. [...]

So far, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has failed to say anything about the boy's death, the State Department has not issued a condemnation of the killing, and the matter has not been broached at the department's daily press briefings since the death was reported.