A Kenyan woman who was diagnosed as HIV-positive has won a lawsuit against her former employer on the ground of unfair dismissal. When Jacqueline Ongur went to the hospital with chest pains and rashes, the doctor tested her for HIV without her knowledge, and then disclosed the results to her employer without advising her. As a result Mrs Ongur’s employer and work colleagues knew that she was HIV-positive before she did, according to her testimony.
Discrimination against HIV-positive people is a significant problem. I have often discovered when visiting AIDS patients that they have been dismissed from their employment and shunned by family and former friends, because nobody wants to run the risk of catching AIDS. This is particularly problematic for people with no assets, because their inability to find employment means they have no income, so that they are unable to obtain adequate food or healthcare. Frequently they die of a combination of disease and malnutrition.
Kenyan law does not explicitly make discrimination against HIV-positive people unlawful, and the Kenyan High Court’s decision in Mrs Ongur’s case is a first for the country. The court ruled that testing employees or prosective employees for HIV without consent constituted an invasion of privacy and was unlawful, and that disclosing an employee’s medical status to the employer without consent was also unlawful.