Is Kenya about to follow Uganda wh strict anti-gay legislatn?

Contents:

• IS KENYA ABOUT TO FOLLOW UGANDA WH STRICT ANTI-GAY LEGISLATN?
• LGBT RIGHTS AI: WILL KENYA BE THE LATT TO PASS ANTI-GAY LAW?
• LGBT RIGHTS AI: WILL KENYA BE THE LATT TO PASS ANTI-GAY LAW?
• GAY DATG NAIROBI AREA
• KENYAN GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST IS KILLED

IS KENYA ABOUT TO FOLLOW UGANDA WH STRICT ANTI-GAY LEGISLATN?

The gatherg was meant to be a celebratn, but the anisers had also been reful to take attendg the gay pri party the Kenyan port of Mombasa last week arrived on and twos, most drs, whout flags or regalia.

Mombasa has many nservative Christians and Mlims and pollg suggts the vast majory of Kenyans nsir homosexualy to be taboo, even if tolerance is creepg gay muny also liv fear of appallg vlence. Earlier this year, an openly gay activist was attacked by a mob a slum close to the party venue.

Many fear such attacks may crease after neighbourg Uganda recently passed one of the world’s strictt anti-gay laws, and some policians Kenya now want to do the the party, therefore, atten only changed to lourful stum once they joed the baret si, but some guts and dignari clearly still wanted to distance themselv om the proceedgs. “Let me make clear to you that I am not a gay person and that is why you see me seated, separate om those people, ” an awkward-lookg Catholic clergyman told of the journalists themselv also looked unfortable.

LGBT RIGHTS AI: WILL KENYA BE THE LATT TO PASS ANTI-GAY LAW?

One gay man who gave his name as Mike mand to know if the journalists were secret policemen.

” the 24-year-old were ed moured to be armed police and telligence officers the crowd: tough-lookg men civilian cloth, perhaps gatherg rmatn, but also ready to protect the crowd if while gay sex remas illegal the East Ain natn unr laws datg back to the lonial era, the gatherg had the tac acceptance of the ernment and police. Mombasa held the event last week as Kenya’s gay muny has recently won judicial victori, yet is also still persecuted and unr threat om new anti-gay legislatn.

Followg Uganda’s adoptn of strict anti-gay legislatn, there are siar mov afoot Kenya, Tanzania and South Sudan, as part of a broad anti-LGBT legislative drive across East Ai.

LGBT RIGHTS AI: WILL KENYA BE THE LATT TO PASS ANTI-GAY LAW?

Any “aggravated homosexualy”, which clus gay sex wh a mor or disabled person or when a termal disease is passed on, would brg the ath penalty.

Holdg events such as last week’s Mombasa pri party would be illegal, as would the registratn of LGBT anisatns, or the promotn of gay or lbian rights. It will be an act of gross cency to take part a gay para or public same-sex displays of amoro backg such legislatn across the regn ame as cultural battle to save Ain valu and sovereignty, which they say are unr asslt by Wtern prsure to pulate on gay rights. ‘A hateful piece of legislatn’Peter Kaluma, a parliamentarian the natnal assembly behd the bill, told the Telegraph the LGBT muny was engrossed a “filthy perversn” fuelled by Wtern Kaluma, a legal scholar, said his proposal aimed to “prohib homosexualy and same sex marriage and related activi” and proscribe “activi that seek to advance, promote or fund homosexualy and unnatural sexual acts” bill was part of a “global ph back agast the LGBTQ movement even the USA and most Wtern European untri, ” he bill has provoked ep unease among the untry’s gay and lbian muny.

“It is a hateful piece of legislatn that will tly make the liv of queer Kenyans unbearable if passed, ” Ante Atieno of the Natnal Gay and Lbian Human Rights Commissn mpaign group said last is also at odds wh a supreme urt lg earlier this year that the ernment was wrong to block a gay rights anisatn om registerg as an NGO. Stunts march Kampala support of Uganda's new anti-homosexualy law. Pollg 2019 by Pew found only 14 per cent of Kenyans said homosexualy should be accepted by society.

GAY DATG NAIROBI AREA

Gays and lbians have been attacked public plac for exprsg themselv. Ismail Bahati, the executive director of Pema Kenya, a lol gay and lbian lobby group, said the climate was an uneasy mixture of vlent hostily and risg tolerance. “We are memoratg people who have died the stggle…” he said, addg that gays and lbians “have been attacked markets, b and public plac for exprsg themselv.

”Some relig lears were creasgly willg to listen to the gay and lbian muny, as shown by the attendance of the Catholic cleric, he said, even though the prit appeared unfortable.

Partly the engagement was pragmatic, as the ernment reached out as part of efforts to tackle at the party, cludg Mike, were ls said the Ugandan legislatn had st a cloud over gay life Kenya, as had the high-profile murr January of Edw Chiloba, a gay rights activist who was killed by a former boyiend. “The fact that [Edw] was killed by a fellow gay lover revolted many Kenyans and put much prsure agast the gay muny, ” said Mike.

KENYAN GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST IS KILLED

Another attene explaed he had been st out by his fay when they realised he was gay, but then had been taken back unr strict ndns. Ibrahim Muntanga said: “They told me to e back but ma sure they did not tolerate homosexual acts spe acceptg who I was. I wanted to be openly, gay and to be clud fully society.