Kenyan High Court refuses to repeal anti-gay law; says no proof LGBTQ people were “born that way”

[dropcap]K[/dropcap]ENYA’S Millimani High Court has upheld laws criminalizing homosexual acts between consenting adults on the ground that there was no conclusive proof that “LGBTQ people are born that way”

“There was no conclusive proof the LGBTQ people are born that way…we find the impugned sections (of the penal code) are not unconstitutional. We hereby decline the relief sought and dismiss the consolidated petition,” presiding judge Roselyn Aburili said in her order on May 24, 2019.

The Court in its ruling observed that it feared that “this (decriminalization of homosexuality) would lead to same-sex marriage, which is unconstitutional”. Under the Kenyan penal law, people who are found guilty of acts of homosexuality can face up to 14 years in prison.

 

 

Background of the case

 

In 2016 Eric Gitari, a Queer activist and President of the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission filed a petition challenging the laws. Two other organizations – the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya and the Nyanza, Rift Valley and Western Kenya Network – with individual petitioners who had been personally affected by the laws, filed a second petition raising similar arguments. The High Court consolidated the two petitions and referred them to a three-judge panel.

The Commission contended before the Court that the colonial laws led to the LGBT community suffering violence, blackmail, harassment and torture and had no place in a democratic Kenyan society”.

Activists said they would appeal the May 24 High Court ruling.

 

Reactions

 

Reacting strongly, Njeri Gateru, the Executive Director of Kenyan National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said the court had missed an opportunity to help ensure “a future free from the intrusion of the state in our private lives, and to turn the tide for the LGBT community here at home in Kenya, and in the wider African continent.”

Kenya’s Human Rights Commission said that the High Court of Kenya had legitimized homophobia by upholding a colonial culture of exclusion, discrimination and violence against minorities”.

 

 

Human Rights Watch called the Kenya High Court’s decision, “a step backwards in the progress Kenya has made toward equality in recent years” and said it was “Kenya’s failure to move forward on decriminalization of same-sex relations violates its obligations under international law”.