Kenya: Hundreds of believers protest LGBTQ association right

Hundreds of Muslims and conservative Christians in Kenya’s capital rallied Friday outside the Supreme Court to protest its decision last month to reaffirm the LGBTQ community’s right of association, saying that the verdict condoned immorality.

“They’re actions that are against God’s commandments, and God’s laws. We do not want the future, our kids, to be raised in a society whereby, they can’t go, our boys cannot go after girls, our girls cannot go after our boys. You see? How can children be raised in such a society? This is what we are talking about. This is not a matter of violence. We have come here peacefully just to let the whole world know we are ready to die,” said Abdulkalil Ibrahim, protester:

The protest in Nairobi took place after the Friday prayers, with demonstrators holding signs that attributed the verdict to Neocolonialists and urged three of the five judges who supported the panel’s majority decision to Repent and Resign.

“We, as a country, we do not want any donations from any other countries to force us with the LGBTQ laws. We want to follow our laws as Kenyans and as Allah says from the Quran. We want all the people to follow the real law that goes in standard with Allah’s Quran. Our president to stand very firm to say that we do not want LGBTQ. The president of Uganda Yoweri Museveni said no. Tanzania said no. Kenya, we want it to be no,” expresses Mohamed Suleiman, protester.

The court last month reaffirmed an earlier ruling that the Non-Governmental Organization Board in Kenya had discriminated against LGBTQ people when it refused to register their association.

The two dissenting judges opposed the ruling because Kenya’s laws outlaws same-sex relationships.

Lawmaker Mohamed Ali told The Associated Press that Kenya is a religious country and that the court should respect that.

The LGBTQ community in Kenya is often targeted by homophobic people, including in cases of physical and verbal abuse.

Kenya’s neighbour, Uganda, in May enacted an anti-LGBTQ law that carries a death penalty for charges of aggravated homosexuality, defined as cases of same-sex sexual relations involving a minor and other categories of vulnerable people, or when the perpetrator is infected with HIV.

A Kenyan lawmaker, Peter Kaluma, has submitted a similar harsh law in Kenya’s national assembly that is pending a review before it goes to the House for debate.

Additional sources • Nadia Colombe Gbané