Fear as Kenyan activists turn to courts in bid to end gay sex ban

An LGBT rights group in Kenya has closed its offices as a security precaution after filing a law suit to overturn the country’s gay sex ban.

In an unprecedented move, the Kenyan National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) is challenging the constitutionality of sections of the penal code that outlaw same-sex intimacy.

According to the suit, the laws, which include penalties of between five to 14 years in prison, “degrade the inherent dignity of affected individuals by outlawing their most private and intimate means of self-expression”.

Eric Gitari, lawyer and the Director of NGLHRC, told Thompson/Reuters: “We have been dealing with a lot of cases of violence, of people beating up people because they disagree with their sexual orientation.

“Our clients… are not willing to follow up these cases with the police because they don’t know how to explain to the police what they were doing with other men in the privacy of their bedrooms without admitting to committing offences,” he said.

NGLHRC has also dealt with cases in which men accused of homosexuality have been forced to undergo anal exams by the authorities; a procedure discredited by medical experts and recognised internationally as a form of torture.

In statement issued on Friday, the group said that its office in Nairobi will be closed until the 24th of April.

NGLHRC explained that this was because “most Kenyan communities and their larger society still largely fear and/or hate people who are known and/or perceived to be gay, or identify with a gender other than the two most socially normal”.

The organisation added that it would be “monitoring the security situation whilst helping to keep our team and lawyers and the community from any unprecedented events”.

The suit is expected to be heard in October by the Constitutional and Human Rights Division of the High Court in Nairobi.

In 2014, NGLHRC won a court action to force the Kenyan government to register it as an NGO. The matter was appealed by the state and remains unresolved.

According to the government, 595 people were prosecuted for homosexuality between 2010 and early 2014. Last year, a proposal to extend the penalty to life in prison and even stoning to death was rejected by the country’s parliament.