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Early sexual debut and premarital sex are increasingly common features of female adolescence in Kenya--putting girls at the risk of unwanted pregnancy and infection by sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS. Levels of knowledge concerning the protective value of condoms and other contraceptives are high, but unprotected sex is still common. Against this background, this paper examines the strategies used by young women to deal with these risks. Qualitative data were obtained from eight focus group discussions conducted with school attending girls aged between 15 and 19 years in Makueni District of Eastern Kenya. Findings suggest that, despite knowledge of the protective value of condoms and other contraceptives, the use of these methods by girls is hampered by inability to access them, the fear of the side effects of contraceptives, and the desire by girls to remain faithful to their religious calling. Most girls also resort to the use of traditional methods such whose potency and efficacy is unproven. These findings suggest the need to make condoms more easily accessible to girls in rural areas, and also for education in the proper use of 'natural' family planning methods. Young women may also benefit from training in how to be more assertive in sexual negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Death from HIV/AIDS is increasingly common in Kenya. However, the ways in which people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and society more generally make sense of this kind of death has been little investigated. By analysing accounts from a sample of fourteen heterosexual people diagnosed HIV positive and presented for treatment in four specialized clinics in Nairobi, and other accounts elicited from members of the clergy and lay persons, this paper examines how people make sense of death from HIV/AIDS. To be infected by HIV equates to death, and because AIDS acts as a metaphor for moral and physical contamination, HIV infection confers on the individual a spoilt image and identity. This image and identity is projected into life beyond physical death, and is reinforced, popularized and legitimized by Christian and African religious schema in such a way that death from HIV/AIDS is now constructed and experienced as 'permanent'. This kind of death has implications for the way in which people living with HIV/AIDS seek treatment and manage an HIV seropositive status. It is also relevant to an understanding of the ways in which funerals and burials for people dying of HIV/AIDS are now being organized in Kenya. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]