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Kenyan waitress fired for being HIV positive wins landmark case

by julianw | July 10, 2008 at 06:29 pm

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The experience of living with AIDS is undoubtedly made worse by the social stigma that accompanies the disease, but a ruling today by the Nairobi high court may allow AIDS victims to fight back against discrimination with the law on their side.

An HIV-positive Kenyan waitress who was sacked from her job has been awarded £17,000 in a landmark ruling against her employer and her doctor.

The woman, known only as JAO to protect her identity, claimed that she had been dismissed after her doctor told her former employer, Home Park Caterers, of her medical status. After a five-year battle for compensation, the Nairobi high court said that it was illegal to end a person's employment because they were HIV positive - the first time such a ruling has been made in Kenya.

Local Aids activists, who are still trying to remove the stigma attached to the disease, welcomed the judgment. "This decision is going to go a long way to making employers more cautious when they sack someone," said James Kamau, of the Kenya Treatment Access Network.