The UNCTAD conference in Nairobi has caused a rise in demand for a very conspicuous commodity: condoms!
Nairobi-based safe sex activist Stanley Ngara says he has been distributing 7,200 condoms in the CBD every night to delegates and other visitors attending the trade conference. On average then, he will have distributed 43,200 condoms by end of today, when the conference folds up.
There has been an influx of commercial sex workers in Nairobi attracted by the high-profile personalities attending conference, said Mr Ngara, also known as ‘King of Condoms’.
More than 7,000 delegates are attending the 14th session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development at the KICC, Nairobi. It began on Sunday and ends today.
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“I had arrived with 7,200 condom boxes on Tuesday night and they were all taken. Since then I have been bringing the same amount and lubricants daily,” Mr Ngara told the Star newspaper. “We should ensure that no one attending the conference contracts HIV or infects others with it.”
Some of those offering conjugal services to the VIP delegates are university and middle-level college students, who are less likely to bother buying condoms, Ngara said.
He said he has been distributing the condoms at strategic places in the CBD, to prevent the spread of STIs. Mr Ngara said he obtained the condoms from the National Aids & STI Control Programme, to distribute during the conference.
“It is the sex workers themselves who requested me to bring plenty of the condoms. It is interesting that people who need to use the condoms are the ones asking for them,” he said.
Mr Ngara said he has also been taking condoms to downtown areas of River Road, Luthuli Avenue and neighbourhoods where demand is very high. “I am receiving calls from bar and hotel owners to deliver condoms. It is a positive development that Kenyans are taking protective sex seriously,” he said.
The demand for condoms on the outskirts of the CBD, including Ngara, Westlands and Kilimani estates, is very high, Ngara said. The activist said there is more safe sex and more people are conscious of their health due to his campaigns.
Last year, Ngara said he had obtained one million condoms for the global entrepreneurship meeting attended by US President Barrack Obama and 5,000 other delegates.
