This year’s World AIDS Day commemorations in Kenya—led by the First Lady of Kenya, Margaret Kenyatta, at the Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi—were dedicated to young people, under the theme “Engage, prevent, celebrate”.

Thousands of young people joined the First Lady to celebrate the end of a presidential campaign to end HIV stigma, especially among adolescents and young people. The nationwide Kick out HIV Stigma campaign leveraged the power of football to mobilize young people to access stigma-free HIV counselling and testing services and HIV messages.

Ms Kenyatta was joined at the event by UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director Luiz Loures. Ms Kenyatta presented trophies to the best performing girls’ and boys’ football teams and county governments that recorded exemplary performance in providing HIV testing and HIV messages to young people. The event also included a concert that engaged Kenyan popular artists to mobilize young people to test for HIV.

HIV is a significant health threat among young people in Kenya. In 2015, 36 000 new HIV infections and 3900 AIDS-related deaths occurred among young people aged 15–24 years. HIV-related stigma remains a significant barrier to many young people accessing HIV counselling, testing and life-saving treatment.

In seven months, the Kick out HIV Stigma campaign reached an estimated 15 million people with HIV messages and provided one-to-one mentorship to more than 3.8 million people and HIV counselling and testing to more than 800 000 people while linking people who tested HIV-positive to treatment.