NAIROBI, 17 July (IRIN) - Stephen
Lewis, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy on AIDS in Africa,
on Monday met President Daniel arap Moi in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi,
to address Annan's proposed Global AIDS and Health Fund and the importance
of having African representation on its governing body, among other issues.
Moi agreed to speak to other African
leaders about his country's legislation on important drugs used in the
fight against the disease, which is ravaging the African continent, a UN
press release stated.
Kenya's Industrial Property Act 2001, passed in June, gave Kenya the scope to import and produce more affordable medicines for HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
After one year of consultations, the Kenyan parliament approved legislation incorporating most of the "safeguards" recommended by WHO, including the right to shop around for the cheapest patented drugs, and to issue licences for the production or importation of cheaper generic drugs.
The Kenya Coalition for Access to Essential Medicines, an umbrella group of NGOs and community-based organisations, welcomed the passing of that bill as "a victory for patient rights over patent protection". It also urged the Kenyan government to put the law into practice by issuing compulsory licences to import and produce affordable generic medicines.
[for additional IRIN coverage of HIV/AIDS in Africa, go to: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/hiv_aids/hivfp.phtml]
Moi agreed to speak to and visit leaders in the subregion to discuss Kenya's legislation on the anti-retroviral drugs used to treat AIDS, the UN stated on Monday. The Kenyan president was a member of the core group of African leaders determined to keep the momentum going in the fight against HIV/AIDS, it said.
Lewis' discussions with the Kenyan president also covered the desperate situation of orphans in Kenya, the UN statement added. The New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch alleged in June that the government of Kenya was failing to care for millions of children who have been orphaned by AIDS, or whose family members were suffering from the disease.
As children were forced to become breadwinners, they were pulled out of school and often forced to take on potentially dangerous labour inappropriate for children, the organisation stated in its report, "In the Shadow of Death: HIV/AIDS and Children's Rights in Kenya".
HIV/AIDS had orphaned about a million children in Kenya, and weakened the extended family and other communities to which orphans had traditionally turned, it added.
Lewis, who was in Nairobi after attending last week's annual summit of the Organisation of African Unity in Zambia, will also be visiting Rwanda and Nigeria in the next fortnight.
[ENDS]
[IRIN-CEA: Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail: irin-cea@ocha.unon.org ]
[This item is delivered in the "africa-english" service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org or Web: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial sites requires written IRIN permission.]
Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2001