Gay Kenyan author Kenneth Binyavanga Wainaina who is currently in Germany, decided to make public his status Thursday as the world marked Aids Day.
"I am HIV Positive, and happy," Binyavanga tweeted which triggered mixed reactions among social media users.
"It is true that is his twitter handle. Even on his Facebook page he said the same statement. He decided to make public his status so as to create awareness among many victims feeling stigmatized," a confidant told the Star on phone.
Time magazine in April 2014, included Wainaina in its annual Time 100 as one of the "Most Influential People in the World.
His debut book, a memoir entitled One Day I Will Write About This Place, was published in 2011.
In January 2014, in response to a wave of anti-gay laws passed in Africa, Wainaina publicly announced that he was gay.
He wrote an essay that he described as a "lost chapter" of his 2011 memoir entitled "I am a Homosexual, Mum", after which he tweeted: "I am, for anybody confused or in doubt, a homosexual. Gay, and quite happy.
Following his university education, Wainaina worked in Cape Town for some years as a freelance food and travel writer.
He is the founding editor of Kwani?, the first literary magazine in East Africa since Transition magazine.
Wainaina has collected over 13,000 recipes from around Africa and is an expert on traditional and modern African Cuisines.