By Manuel Odeny, @TheNyanzaNews

RESEARCH: Kisumu, Migori Top Nyanza 6 Counties Transgender, Drug Injectors. See Where Your County Ranks

By Manuel Odeny, @TheNyanzaNews

Kisumu and Migori counties are top in both transgender and people injecting drugs among six Nyanza counties, a research has found out.

The study “Programmatic mapping and estimating the population size of FSW, MSM, PWID and transgender populations in Kenya”— was published in the Gates Open Research journal.

The study had set to estimate of the country’s key population indicates as people who are disproportionately affected by HIV compared to the general population.

The new count also found the country has 16,063 individuals who identify as people who inject drugs, and 10,951 transgender people.

This is the first research in Kenya to try and estimate transgender people and the second after 2012 to try and the national count of sex workers and gay people.

Transgender describes people whose gender identity is different from the gender they were thought to be when they were born.

The current analysis was conducted by researchers from the National Aids and STI Control Programme, the Key Population Consortium of Kenya and Partners for Health and Development in Africa.

Others researchers were drawn from Global Health Program of the University of California San Francisco, and the Institute for Global Public Health, University of Manitoba, Canada.

“Comparing the size estimates of KPs from 2012, we have noticed a 26 per cent increase in the overall estimated number of Female Sex Workers (FSW) (133,675 to 167,940) and a 76 per cent increase in Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) (18,460 to 32,580), while the number of People Who Inject Drugs (PWID) has decreased from 18,327 to 16,063,” the researchers said.

HIV prevalence is high with 18.9 per cent PWID, 29.5 per cent of FSW and 18.2 per cent of MSM being HIV positive.

The study, conducted between January and March 2018, covered 34 counties including Nyanza six counties of Siaya, Kisumu, Homa Bay, Migori, Kisii and Nyamira.

Here us the breakdown in the region:

Transgender People

1. Kisumu 228
2. Migori 183
3. Siaya 95
4. Kisii 62
5. Homa Bay 87
6. Nyamira 3

PWID

1. Kisumu 491
2. Migori 202
3. Siaya 110
4. Homa bay  91
5. Kisii 36
6. Nyamira NA