Tag: Kenya gay rights

Kenya’s ‘gay tests’ ruled legal

A Kenyan High Court has dismissed a case challenging the legality of anal tests as proof of homosexuality. Two men, who say Kenyan police forced them to undergo the procedure to prove they had had gay sex, launched the case, calling for the tests to be declared unconstitutional. “There was no other way evidence could… Read more »

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta Says Gay Rights Are Not A ‘Pressing Issue’ For Kenyans

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Sunday told CNN that Africans have more pressing issues to deal with than LGBT rights. On his recent trip to Kenya, President Barack Obama talked about such rights in a joint press conference with Kenyatta. “As an African-American in the United States, I am painfully aware of the history of… Read more »

Obama faces gay rights challenge in Kenya

As the United States has grown more tolerant during Obama’s presidency, African countries have imposed harsher laws on gays and lesbians. Six and a half years after Kenyans started naming their children in honor of America’s first black president, Barack Obama’s name has also become synonymous, often derisively, with gay rights. “Go wait for your… Read more »

5,000 naked anti-gay protesters to greet President Obama in Kenya

Nairobi, Kenya – An anti-gay political party in Kenya plans to protest against U.S. President Barack Obama by greeting him with 5,000 “totally naked” protesters for his “open and aggressive support for homosexuality.” The Republican Liberty Party’s “main objective is for him to see and understand the difference between a man and woman,” according to… Read more »

Quorum: How To Do LGBTI Activism In Kenya

When meeting anonymously with anti-gay religious leaders, Kenyan LGBTI activist Essy asks, “Do you really think that I should be beaten, now that you know me?” Quorum is a live journalism forum focused on LGBT experiences around the world. Its mission is to lift up the voices of non-Western LGBT activists defining the struggle for… Read more »

Tabloid joins politician, bishops in targeting LGBTI Kenyans

In the wake of last month’s High Court decision in favor of a Kenyan organization seeking human rights for LGBTI people, some anti-gay Kenyans have opened the door to even more intense persecution of LGBTI Kenyans. The latest step in that direction was today’s publication by Kenya’s tabloid Weekly Citizen of a list of the… Read more »

Kenya’s LGBT Community Gains The Right To Organize, But Religious Opposition Looms

Nairobi, Kenya (RNS) In a move that has stirred the anger of Kenya’s anti-gay Christian groups and sparked celebration by pro-gay clergy, the nation’s High Court has ruled that gay rights activists have the right to formally register their own groups and welfare organizations. A three-judge panel issued the ruling Friday (April 24) in response… Read more »

Kenya trans woman wins right to change name on school certificate

The male gender marker will also be removed A Kenyan transgender activist yesterday won a landmark case to change the name on her high school exam certificate. The high court gave the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) 45 days to change the name from Andrew Mbugua to Audrey Mbugua on her Kenya Certificate of Secondary… Read more »

A Win In Kenya For The Transgender Community

While the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community struggles to achieve basic human rights throughout Africa, transgender Kenyans have seen a powerful victory. Transgender activist Audrey Mbugua won a seminal case against the Kenya National Examination Council on Tuesday, granting her legal recognition as a woman on her academic certificates. “We won. It’s a… Read more »

Watch: Kenya criticised for branding LGBT rights groups ‘unacceptable’

Human rights groups have urged Kenya to allow LGBT groups to carry out their work there uninterrupted. he Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a new video in which it notes that the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) was denied its application to register, and that such NGOs were often deemed “unacceptable”.… Read more »

Reports: 60+ Arrested in Raid at Nairobi Gay Bar

Special Note: I’m traveling to Kenya later this summer to report on LGBT issues on an international media fellowship from the International Center for Journalists and the Ford Foundation. More in the weeks ahead. Disturbing news from East Africa. Dozens of people were arrested on Sunday morning during a police raid on a popular gay… Read more »

Queer Rights in Kenya: A Conversation With Njeri Gateru

When asked about the recent progress of Kenya’s LGBT movement, Njeri Gateru doesn’t hesitate to answer with the word “visibility.” She describes promoting conversations on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression (SOGIE) in public spaces through events such as the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, International Human Rights Day, and World AIDS Day.… Read more »

Activists: Hundreds of LGBT Refugees Have Fled Uganda

A Kenyan activist, Ugandan asylum-seeker, and the American Jewish World Service hope to raise awareness about east Africa’s beleaguered LGBT community, even as hundreds reportedly flee Uganda. Hundreds of LGBT refugees — whose existence has been criminalized under Uganda’s draconian Anti-Homosexuality Act — have fled Uganda for neighboring Kenya after facing threats and being blackmailed,… Read more »

Leading Kenyan MP says homosexuality ‘as serious as terrorism’

Homosexuality in Kenya is as bad a problem as terrorism, the ruling party’s parliamentary leader said on Wednesday, but argued against stepping up legal sanctions on the grounds that existing laws were tough enough. Aden Duale, the majority leader from President Uhuru Kenyatta’s ruling Jubilee coalition, was responding to a group of MPs demanding tougher… Read more »