Uganda: Activists Fight Criminalisation of HIV/Aids

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The Weekly Observer (Kampala)

3 September 2008
Posted to the web 5 September 2008

Shifa Mwesigye

In the boardroom of UWONET in Ntinda Minister's Village, a small group of AIDS activists sits waiting to vent their frustration over the increasing stigmatisation of HIV-positive persons in Uganda.

Well known personalities such as Dr. Margaret Mungerera, Maj. Rubaramira Ruranga, Dr. Dickens Rwabogo and Milly Katana, all try to take in what happened to a woman in Rukungiri the previous week. The woman was killed by her husband who believed she had infected him with the HIV virus which causes AIDS.

As they walk from Ntinda to the city centre in protest last Saturday, the activists call for an end to the criminalisation of HIV/AIDS and stigma.

"How did he know she infected him? Knowing your status doesn't mean you infected your partner. Why the blame game?" Dr. Mungerera says in frustration. Meanwhile Ruranga bites his jaw and shakes his head.

This anger has all been brewed by a little-known man from Kikarara Bwambara in Rukungiri district, who decided to kill his wife of 10 years, suspecting that she infected him with HIV.

Julius Tumwesigye allegedly hacked his wife Glorious Kyarikunda with a machete. According to reports, Tumwesigye did not wait to ascertain whether his wife was HIV-positive or not. He just assumed she was the reason he was HIV positive.

This story follows another of a man who decapitated his wife in front of their children in Kinawataka, near Kampala, after discovering that he was HIV-positive and she wasn't.

The woman had been advised by a doctor to use condoms during sex with her husband to prevent infection.

But this man couldn't imagine how he could be HIV-positive and his wife negative. The couple were living in what scientists call a discordant relationship.

Maj. Ruranga blames ignorance for the increasing number of HIV-related violence.

The retired major, who lives positively with HIV, says lack of knowledge is the reason people are criminalising HIV.

The phenomenon of discordance, whereby one partner is HIV positive and the other negative, is particularly shrouded in ignorance. Many people believe that when their spouse is HIV-positive, they don't have to do a test of their own for that is assumed to be their fate as well.

However, medical workers have pointed out that cases of discordant couples are as widespread as 5% of the sampled 4,000 cohabiting couples, according to the HIV/AIDS Sero-Behavioural Survey launched on June 19, 2006 by the National Diseases Control in the Ministry of Health.

The government is working on a Bill that seeks to punish individuals who deliberately infect others with HIV.

During the 2008 HIV/AIDS Implementers Meeting in June, President Museveni suggested that a person who knowingly infects another with the deadly HIV virus should be hanged.

But Ruranga angrily argues that the government is condemning people living with HIV instead of equipping the country with knowledge about infection and prevention.

The Parliamentary Committee on HIV/AIDS is currently scrutinising the Bill that when passed into law is likely to criminalise transmission of HIV.

"How will they know you infected someone deliberately? If a couple has a child born positive, will the couple be punished?"

Similar laws have been passed in Benin, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Togo and Sierra Leone. Other countries including Uganda, Angola, DR Congo, Malawi, Madagascar, and Tanzania are proposing to pass such laws, which Ruranga calls condemnation of people living with HIV.

"We are equal citizens of this country. We have HIV, others have other diseases. Killing someone will not take away the virus," he said.

The law, Ruranga argues, will target women because they are routinely tested when they are pregnant and are therefore more likely to know their status before any other person in the household.

Dr. Mungerera finds this unfair.

"Why is it only a woman who is routinely tested as if it's only a woman's business?" she asks, adding that such as law would scare away individuals from voluntary testing. Testing levels are already very low, with only 10% of the 30 million Ugandans actually knowing their sero status. Also, experts point out, those who know their positive status could be prevented from living a positive life.

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