Blood Stealing Rumours in Rural Western Kenya

A Local Critique of Medical Research in its Wider Context

Abstract

This paper examines responses of people in rural western Kenya, towards recent biomedical research and the collection of blood specimens. The perception of research involves fears of "blood-stealing". Similar rumors have circulated in East Africa since the early colonial occupation, and they surface regularly in connection with medical research activities. They seem to express concerns with the unequal distribution of knowledge and power, and the exploitation of bodies. They evaluate research and the wider global political and economic situation. This blood-stealing idiom is not simply employed to "resist" biomedical research, but it is used within various and rapidly changing local conflicts, reflecting gender, age, wealth, religion, and personal and historical memory. The political critique is refracted through local social relations and enacted in daily life. It invites reflections on the practices of current biomedical research in Africa.