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The curtains have fallen on Joe Muriuki, the first Kenyan to go public with news of his HIV positive status, after battling the virus for a total of 35 years.

It was on September 20, 1987 when Muriuki, then a little-known worker at Nairobi City Council (NCC), announced to the world that he had contracted the dreaded virus that was shaking humanity both locally and abroad.

Coming out publicly at a time when the stigma was sky high, Muriuki found himself in uncharted territory; often facing public ridicule and stigmatisation.

Scary disease

Yesterday, Nephak, a network of people living with HIV broke the news of his death to the world, eulogising him as an icon, hero and a founding member. He was 62.

“At a time when HIV was the new scary disease in town and with no known treatments and a lot of stigma, Muriuki abandoned his duties at the NCC, packed his bags and together with the family, relocated back to their rural home in Nyeri,” Nephak said in a statement.

Retracing the events of that September 20, 1987 afternoon, Nephak said the challenge was compounded by the fact that Muriuki’s wife was only three weeks pregnant with their third child and doctors recommended to the couple to abort the fetus.

Their argument was that the foetus was going to be infected with the ‘terminal’ disease.  Fortunately, their son was born at full term and, even better, was found to be HIV negative.

Before the September 20 announcement, a slight illness had put Muriuki down and after examination, his personal doctor expressed misgivings about his health condition, Nephak recalled.

“After a long testing process, Muriuki was confirmed to be indeed HIV positive. As a matter of fact, doctors told him that he only had three months to live,” the statement said.

Although he was told by doctors that he had only three months to live, Muriuki beat all odds and lived for another three decades thanks-to his indefatigable spirit.

In a past interview, Muriuki revealed that he was forced to relocate to Nyeri from Nairobi to escape the stigma that was making his life unbearable.

“I was a normal young man with a normal lifestyle. I had a promising career as an accountantl. I had been losing weight and having other standard symptoms associated with HIV but I assumed it was malaria,” Muriuki was quoted as saying. 

“Everybody was looking at me like an alien when they learnt of my status and even at work, my chair had to be thrown away,” he says, adding: “I, therefore, decided to travel home to Nyeri to go and die there.”

One of the humiliating moments he faced was rejection at a local bank who refused to open for him an account after learning of his HIV status. The attendant, according to Nephak, refused to take his details and referred him to the branch manager who also declined.

Their fears were that his future could not be ascertained because of the disease. At the time, HIV was associated with homosexuals and people of “loose morals” and therefore shunned by the society. 

He was stunned by the treatment he received from both friends and colleagues because he never considered himself as a person of loose morals.

Once the three months passed, he realised that there were a lot of misconceptions around the disease and took upon himself to educate the masses about it. 

“In the HIV field, his track record is nothing but impeccable,” the organisation said.

Muriuki was among the first people to take Kemron- a drug invented by Kenyan researchers to treat HIV and which was released in 1991. 

The drug was however later dropped after it was found not to be effective.

On August 22, 2002, 21 African countries convened in Cape Town, South Africa and launched Pan African Treatment Access Movement (Patam) to champion for the rights of people living with HIV and make treatment available to all.

“Patam was founded to mobilise African communities to realise the need for HIV treatment. Joe and 3 others were the only Kenyans at the launch,” Nephak said.