Moi says men who spread HIV/AIDS should be hanged

President Daniel arap Moi of Kenya on Saturday called for people who deliberately infect others with HIV/AIDS to be hanged, according to news reports. Speaking on his return from the UN special session on HIV/AIDS in New York, USA, Moi was quoted by the Kenyan ‘Sunday Nation’ as saying that new laws against rapists and others who knowingly spread the disease were necessary because “young girls cannot protect themselves from such criminals.” He said the Kenyan government would undertake a review of laws to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS beyond an estimated 2.2 million people already HIV positive in Kenya. “The time has come for those who deliberately infect others to die and those who rape to get life,” the ‘Sunday Nation’ quoted him as saying.

Moi also claimed the Christian Church had failed to educate its followers on the dangers of HIV/AIDS, adding that the best defence against the disease was good morals. “If 80 percent of Kenyans are Christians, why is AIDS spreading this fast?” he asked. “Hanging is not the answer. People should be encouraged to lead conscientious lives,” the BBC quoted Bishop John Njue, chairman of the Kenya Episcopal Conference, as saying. Sheikh Muhammad Dor, Secretary-General of The Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya, said that Muslims would not support hanging but that life imprisonment would be a suitable punishment [for such deliberate transmission of the disease], the BBC added.