KENYA looks set to become the next African country to lift the ban on gay marriages after the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) filed a case in the high court seeking to end the criminalisation of adults who engage in homosexual activity.
Like Nigeria, Kenya is one of the African countries that criminalises lesbian and gay activity and anyone found guilty can be punished with 14 years imprisonment. Currently, in 34 African nations homosexual activity is illegal, with some countries punishing it with life imprisonment or even death.
Across Kenya, violent attacks by vigilantes on the lesbian gay bi-sexual and trans-sexual (LGBT) community is rife, who hide behind the law. However, NGLHRC has decided to fight back and is planning to use its suit to remove criminal punishment for adults who engage in homosexual activity altogether.
NGLHRC leader Eric Gitari said he closed the commission's office after filing the case over fears of a backlash from members of the public. However, he returned 10 days later to find no threats or violence had taken place.
Mr Gitari said: "Those laws degrade the inherent dignity of affected individuals by outlawing their most private and intimate means of self-expression. We wanted to monitor the public reaction and not put our staff at risk but the reaction has not been as expected as we thought there would be backlash but there has been none."
Next month, proceedings in the High Court will begin, though the appeals process means it could take up to five years for an outcome. Mr Gitari hopes his country could soon follow in the footsteps of Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe, which have decriminalised homosexuality in recent years.
In this latest case brought by NGLHRC, the law suit revolves around a challenge to Section 162 of Kenya's penal code, a piece of legislation introduced in the 19th century during British colonial rule in East Africa. Under the heading unnatural offenses, it condemns anyone who has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature.
According to the Kenyan government, 595 cases were prosecuted under Section 162 between 2010 and 2014, although Mr Gitari and his team found that most of them were cases of bestiality and rape. In Kenya, these crimes are currently seen as comparable to consensual gay sex in the eyes of the law.
In reality, Gitari says, the law is rarely enforced against homosexual activity, with only one person convicted since 2011. However, activists say the law still provides legitimacy to discrimination in a society in which 90% of people oppose homosexuality, according to a 2013 survey by the Pew Research Center.
Mr Gitari himself was outed as one of Kenya's top gays on the front cover of a national newspaper in 2015, while in February last year two of his clients were subjected to anal examinations and HIV tests at the hands of police, after being accused of homosexual activity under Section 162. It was the first case of forced anal testing that Mr Gitari had heard of but he knows of other cases in which men have been saved from the humiliating procedure at the last minute after doctors refused to carry it out.
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