Kenya joined the rest of the world on Saturday in marking the World AIDS Day with a call to every citizens to know their status since it's the only solution to successfully respond to HIV/AIDs.

Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka who officiated the national celebrations in Kenya's Nakuru town hailed the move by the ministry of special programs and National AIDS Control Council to establish an HIV Equity Tribunal in Kenya, the first of its kind globally, which has been cited as the best example throughout the world.

"This tribunal represents a bold step towards achieving the goal of eliminating stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV by promoting laws and policies that advanced human rights and fundamental freedoms," Musyoka said.

Kenya has stepped up efforts to eliminate mother to child HIV/ AIDS infections.

The East African nation, which is one of the countries bearing the heaviest burden of HIV infection among children, launched a drive to prevent and eliminate incidents of mothers transmitting the disease to their children.

The program aims at reducing mother to child HIV infections to about 3,000 cases by the year 2015 and later eliminating the incidents.

While the country has made progress in the fight against the disease by coming up with Cancer Prevention and Control law, officials said it calls for change of attitude and lifestyles to successfully fight the disease.

The celebrations which were held under the theme, Getting to Zero, the East African nation focused on zero new infections, zero discrimination and zero HIV/AIDS related deaths.

Musyoka said the program, first of its kind in Africa, establishes laws and policies that enhances human rights and freedoms among those living with the scourge adding that the program will help ensure the country achieves its goal of zero HIV infections by 2015.

He called on members of the public to make use of the tribunal to ensure that their rights are not violated because of their HIV positive status.

Musyoka reiterated the governments commitment to provide leadership by mobilizing available resources and strategic direction to guide national response to mitigate this problem.

Special Programs Minister Esther Murugi expressed concern that the total number of HIV cases in Kenya has increased from 1.4 million in 2007 to the current estimated 1.6 million people.

She said the success of the HIV and AIDS control program in the country is attributed to political commitment marked by the increased financial resource in the HIV/AIDS program with the government channeling over 35.3 million U.S. dollars directly to communities in research institutions to fight the epidemic.

Murugi encouraged Kenyans to get tested saying this will help the government in its planning program for its citizens.

She regretted that out of 38 million Kenyans, only 6 million have been tested where 1.6 million have tested positive. She said by knowing one's status, the government will be able to plan well for ART services.

She at the same time, called on donor community to increase findings for ARVs to ensure most victims are put under the treatment in addition to the already 540,000 victims who are on the life-prolonging drugs.

Health experts note that the number of HIV patients in the East African nation suffering from diseases like tuberculosis, candidiasis, pneumonia and herpes simplex, among others, has gone down due to sustained use of ARV drugs.

Opportunistic infections are diseases that take advantage of a weakened immune system to attack the body. In the case of HIV, the illnesses attack the body after one has lived with the disease for sometime.

Kenya's government has sustained efforts to enhance access of the drugs, especially at public health institutions where they are available for free. The ministry is striving to put half of people living with HIV on ARVs.

Due to decrease of patients suffering from opportunistic infections in Kenya, Murugi noted HIV burden on country's health system has in turn declined.