At a glance: HIV in Kenya

The current targets for HIV testing and treatment are called the 95-95-95 targets and must be reached by 2025 in order to end AIDS by 2030.

In 2022 in Kenya:

Did you know?

About 94% of people with HIV (whether they know their status or not) are on treatment in Kenya.

Preventing HIV in Kenya focuses on:

• condom provision
• comprehensive sexuality education
• PEP
• PrEP (PrEP is available as an oral pill, a vaginal ring and injections are being trialled)
• gender-based violence prevention
• a range of prevention services for young people, particularly adolescent girls and young women
• voluntary medical male circumcision
• harm reduction for people who use drugs
• prevention of mother-to-child transmission
• integrated HIV and SRHR services, including testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections
• linked to HIV testing services, including partner testing.

Did you know?

Keeping girls in school and helping them complete secondary education significantly reduces their vulnerability to HIV. It helps increase girls’ control over their sexual and reproductive health and rights. Kenya’s current AIDS strategy promotes interventions that keep girls in school.

Testing for HIV is: 

• possible via self-testing kits, which are available from vending machines in some areas
• being expanded in the community as opposed to just at health clinics

• being integrated into other service centres, such as contraception, vaccination, and TB clinics.

Did you know?

HIV stigma is one of the big reasons that people put off testing for HIV in Kenya. The People Living With HIV Stigma Index (2021) found that 62% of people delayed taking an HIV test because they were worried about people’s reaction if they tested positive.

Treatment for HIV is: 

• initiated as soon as someone tests positive for HIV
• seeing reduced numbers of people staying on their treatment
• holistic, focusing on early diagnosis, mental health and psychosocial interventions.

Did you know?

The scale up of HIV treatment has reduced AIDS-related deaths in Kenya by 64% since 2010.

Kenya’s HIV epidemic affects everyone, but men who have sex with men, transgender people, women, sex workers and people who inject drugs are more likely to get HIV. They are also less likely to take HIV treatment. In 2022 it was estimated that only 7.3% of transgender people and 33.7% of sex workers were taking HIV treatment in Kenya. This is much lower than the national average of 94%.

Kenya’s legal environment helps to drive stigma and discrimination against some groups. Homosexuality is illegal, as is drug use. Sex work is not technically criminalised but it is illegal to live off the proceeds of sex work, and other laws are also used against sex workers. Abortion is legal but only in limited circumstances on health grounds. 

Young women and girls are also disproportionately affected by poverty, violence and injustice in Kenya, which makes them more vulnerable to HIV. As a result, HIV prevalence is much higher among young women compared to young men – 1.7% versus 1.1%.

It's estimated that at least two thirds of couples with HIV are discordant, meaning one of the partners has HIV and one doesn’t.

Kenya is making good progress in HIV prevention. It was one of the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa to approve the use of oral PrEP and is also one of the first five countries to have started to roll out the PrEP vaginal ring. However, adherence to PrEP is an issue. In 2022, it was reported that only 10% of the people who started PrEP in Kenya returned for a pill refill three months later. 

Kenya also leads the way in providing voluntary medical male circumcision. It is the only priority country to have reached the target of 90% of men and boys obtaining the procedure.

Did you know?

Kenya monitors HIV prevalence in each region. In 2022, Homabay had the highest HIV prevalence at 16.2%. This is much higher than the national average of 3.7%. Knowing which areas have the highest rates of HIV will make Kenya’s HIV response more effective as services  can be targeted to the areas with the greatest need.