Table 3.

Perceived barriers of oral HIV-self testing as described by service providers, outreach workers, peer educators, and female sex workers in four regions of Kenya, 2016.

Barriers	Sample excerpts
(a) Lack of counselling and professional Support.	“You may go to test yourself, collapse and there is no one to pick you up.” (FSW, Nairobi)  “You will be found hanging with your result on the table.” (FSW, Nairobi)
(b) Inaccurate results	“One may not know how [to] read the instructions or to interpret the results. So she may not know if she is sick or not …you assume that you are not infected when you actually are.” (FSW, Kisumu/Siaya)
(c) Fear of partner’s response	“Sometimes I am given the kit and I use it to test myself. I was sure that I was clean. I had told my boyfriend that if this thing reacts like this then I am going to be like this [HIV positive]. Then I go and discover that I am positive and my boyfriend knows that he is clean … all hell will break loose and somebody can die.” (FSW, Kisumu/Siaya)
(d) Mistrust of peer educators	“You can be chased away [by the FSW] that you have come to spoil their business.” (PE, Southern Nyanza/Kisii)  “Yes, that will give problems because you will give even the people that you did not consent. You didn’t talk to her prior to giving it. So, we can have a problem if I just decide to distribute it [the oral HIVSTST kit] like tomatoes in the market. We will have a problem.” (PE, Kisumu/Siaya)
(e) Potential misuse of the self-test kit	Like a peer educator … just goes with them [the oral HIVST kits] and maybe for their own use. And then they come to the clinic and say that they have been stolen. (SP, Nairobi)
(f) Further stigmatize FSWs	“This [oral HIVST] is just a way of getting rid of sex workers because sex workers … are not wanted by some communities.” (PE, Southern Nyanza/Kisii)

Notes: FSW: female sex worker; SP: service provider; PE: peer educator; IDI: in-depth interview; FGD: focus group discussion; oral HIVST: oral self-testing.