NAIROBI, May 13, 2008 (AFP) - Kenyan authorities have commissioned a study in a bid to stem widespread homosexual practices in the country's crowded prisons, a top health official said, the Standard daily reported Tuesday.
"There is a lot of homosexuality in our prisons and we can no longer pretend that it does not exist," the newspaper quoted John Kibosia, the head of health services in prisons, as saying.
Kobosia said the government had commissioned a research firm, Liverpool VCT, to investigate homosexuality in the country's 89 penal institutions and three youth correctional centres so the authorities can stem the outlawed practice.
"We want to know why the vice is so rampant in our prisons and see how we can get rid of it," he added.
VCT is a Kenya-based organisation that undertakes research contracts into the country's policy on AIDS/HIV and other sexually transmittable diseases.
Currently, 48,000 inmates are squeezed into spaces designed for 15,000 in the 89 penal facilities, where skin ailments, AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria are common.
Last year, the state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights blamed ill health for the death of at least 720 inmates in prisons annually.
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