KENYA: Government sued over AIDS discrimination in schools

JOHANNESBURG, 7 Jan 2004 (PLUSNEWS) - The Kenyan government has been sued over discriminatory practices at some of its public schools that refuse to admit HIV-positive orphans.

The case was filed by the Nyumbani Children's Home and seeks, among other forms of redress, an official government declaration that it is discriminatory for public schools to refuse to admit such children.

In an interview with Reuters the orphanage's US founder, Father Angelo D'Agostino, said: "We're fighting stigmatisation and discrimination. Hopefully, with a positive judgment we can appeal to parliament to pass a law to criminalise discrimination."

The health ministry estimates that Kenya has 2.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS and 900,000 AIDS orphans.

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