President William Ruto, an evangelical Christian, has criticized a February supreme court decision allowing an LGBT rights group to register as a non-governmental organization. “We cannot travel the road of women marrying their fellow women and men marrying their fellow men,” he said at the time.
The proposed Kenyan law reflects a significant degree of agreement and coordination on anti-gay policies between lawmakers across the region, according to the draft of the bill as well as Reuters interviews with the Kenyan MPs and activists.
Several new crimes appear in both Uganda’s law and the proposed Kenyan one, including the aggravated homosexuality offense, “promoting” homosexuality and allowing gay sex on your property, which affects landlords. The latter two carry prison terms of at least 10 and five years respectively, the draft shows.
The Kenyan bill’s author, lawmaker Peter Kaluma, said the push to pass similar legislation to Uganda’s was in part motivated by solidarity with its smaller neighbor, which has faced Western criticism over its law and seen the United States impose visa restrictions on some officials.
“Across the continent we want to have these laws,” Kaluma added. “If they were to sanction Uganda, let them sanction the entirety of Africa.”
He said the proposed law was influenced by discussions at a conference organized by Ugandan lawmakers in March in the city of Entebbe where he said parliamentarians from several African nations discussed strengthening anti-LGBTQ laws.
The conference, about African family values and sovereignty, was attended by around 80 lawmakers from 14 countries, according to a communique issued afterwards. Uganda was best represented, contributing over half of the delegates, followed by South Sudan.
The delegates called for action on issues ranging from the sexual exploitation of children to pornography. They urged nations to ban “transgender medical interventions” and make foreign donors pledge that none of their funding would go to “abortion, comprehensive sexuality education and/or the LGBTQ agenda”.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson said Washington opposes any law that curtails a vulnerable group’s human rights and said governments should work to ensure all individuals can enjoy fundamental freedoms.
“The United States advances efforts around the globe to protect LGBTQI+ persons from violence and abuse, criminalization, discrimination, and stigma, and to empower local LGBTQI+ movements and persons,” the spokesperson said in response to questions about this story.
Fear reigns at Nairobi Pride
The Kenyan bill would toughen up a colonial-era statute under which gay sex was already illegal, though the older, less detailed law was rarely enforced.
The proposed law would signal the death knell for Kenya’s status as a place of relative refuge for gay people in East Africa as the only country in the region to host refugees fleeing persecution because they are LGBTQ.
The draft bill stipulates that no one should be granted asylum on grounds of persecution linked to sexual orientation.
Anticipation of the new legislation, and the anti-gay rhetoric in politics and the media from public figures such as Ali and Kaluma that has accompanied it, is already casting a chill over the LGBTQ community, according to organizers of the Pride event in Nairobi this month.
Stella Kachina, one of the organizers, said that unlike in previous years the location was not disclosed in advance out of fear that anti-gay activists would target the event. Instead, participants were picked up and brought to the venue.
Attendee Marylize Biubwa said the current climate was frightening for gay people. “Kenya as a country doesn’t feel like home anymore,” she said.
Both advocates and opponents of the Family Protection Bill say it has a good chance of becoming law, boosted by the enactment of the Ugandan law and well-organized and financed anti-LGBTQ political campaigners.
Lorna Dias, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya, also cited last year’s election of Ruto.
“The mere fact that we have a religious-leaning president who has openly declared his stand … people have been emboldened by his religious proclamations,” Dias said.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
