By ERIC SHIMOLI

The Government is to prepare a national policy on condoms - as it prepares to import 300 million of them as part of the HIV/Aids control campaign.

The new policy, expected to be discussed at Cabinet level, is to be unveiled in three weeks, said Dr Kenneth Chebet, head of the Aids control unit in the Ministry of Health.

It is expected to spell out accessibility, use and the distribution of condoms and is part of the National Aids Control Council's strategy to reduce HIV infection among the 15-25 age group by 30 per cent in the next four years.

The guidelines are expected to meet fierce opposition from the Catholic church and Muslim groups, both of which have spoken out in the past against condoms.

The 300 million being imported will provide an average of 60 condoms for every sexually-active Kenyan male this financial year.

The Aids control council reported that 10 million condoms were used in Kenya last year.

Dr Chebet did not state how much the consignment would cost.

Health Permanent Secretary Julius Meme said in the past that the Government could stop distributing free condoms as a way of making Kenyans seek protected sex.

Dr Chebet, who spoke yesterday during a media workshop on HIV/Aids at a city hotel, said imported condoms were tested to ensure safety.

Attempts had been made by the inter-ministerial committee drawing up the policy to involve religious groups to ensure widespread acceptability, he said.

The new condom policy is likely to be seen as part of the decisive line the Government is adopting in combating Aids since the disease was declared a national disaster in 1999.

According to official figures, 2.2 million Kenyans are living with HIV and 250,000 have Aids.

It is estimated that 700 Kenyans die every day from the disease. Already, 1.5 million Kenyans have died of Aids, leaving one million orphans.

The Government estimates the economic loss caused by Aids at Sh200 million a day, said Dr Chebet.

Aids has had a devastating effect on health, education, agriculture and manufacturing.

Aids control units have been set up in every Government ministry as part of the fight against the scourge, he added.

Among successes the Government claims in the fight against HIV/Aids are the attainment of 95 per cent awareness on the virus and disease. However a positive response in more restrained sexual behaviour achieves a rating of less than 50 per cent.

Dr Chebet said Kenya has attained over 99 per cent blood safety through screening before transfusion in all hospitals.

An active surveillance programme for monitoring the trends and impact of Aids has been established countrywide, making Kenya the only country in the region with such a system. NACC's information, education and communication officer Meshack Ndolo says that behavioural surveillance programmes will be established to run alongside these.

Also expected in a new raft of actions is the launching of aggressive advertising campaigns to introduce and reinforce new social practices and publicise programmes such as the voluntary counselling and testing service.

The country has also reduced the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases, especially syphilis, from nine per cent of the population to about one per cent, said Aids council chairman Dr Mohammed Abdullah.

Despite having achieved all this and having one of the most comprehensive HIV/Aids policies in Africa, Kenya is still not regarded as a success story in the fight against the disease because of bad publicity internationally, he said.

Dr Abdullah pledged that information about the disease is released more frequently.

"The use of the information should, however, be geared towards helping prevent HIV/Aids spreading and caring for the infected," he said.