By Martin Masai and Agencies Angencies
Musoa, Tulimani
Mbooni Sub-County has quietly but decisively emerged as Makueni’s leading hotspot for new HIV infections, a troubling shift that public health officials say signals a deeper breakdown in prevention systems once sustained by donor-funded programmes.
Emerging county data now places Mbooni at the top of new transmissions, a position it did not occupy during the height of sustained HIV prevention and community outreach supported by USAID. The change, health experts warn, is not coincidental.
The surge comes in the wake of the withdrawal of USAID programmes, whose exit has left gaps in testing, youth outreach, behavioural change campaigns and real-time surveillance — the very pillars that had kept new infections in check.
What is unfolding in Mbooni is increasingly being viewed as the first visible casualty of that vacuum.
The warning was publicly reinforced in Tulimani, Musoa, during the burial of former United Nations employee Florence Kelly Mutiso, where Governor Mutula Kilonzo Jr. acknowledged that the county is already paying the price of an abrupt donor exit.
Mutula confirmed that Mbooni is currently leading in new HIV transmissions, noting that early trends point to a rise in infections among young people — a demographic that had been the primary target of donor-supported prevention programmes.
“This is not a distant threat. It is happening now,” the Governor said, urging residents, especially the youth, to confront the reality and reverse the trajectory.
Mutula did not however announce any practical county government interventions to pick up from where USAID left.
The setting of the warning was symbolic. Mutiso, a career development professional, was remembered by colleagues as a firm believer in evidence-based policy.
Her work, mourners noted, underscored the role of data and sustained systems in managing complex challenges such as public health.
County officials now fear that without urgent intervention, Mbooni’s spike may be a bellwether for other sub-counties as counties struggle to replace donor-backed infrastructure with domestic funding and coordination.
As Kenya adjusts to the post-USAID landscape, Mbooni’s rise to the top of new HIV infections offers an early and unsettling signal: when prevention systems collapse, the virus advances quietly — until the data catches up.
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