Protests reported in Nairobi against LGBTQ community’s right of association

KENYA – Hundreds of Muslims and conservative Christians in Kenya’s capital reportedly rallied on Friday outside the Supreme Court to protest its decision last month to reaffirm the LGBTQ community’s right of association.

Protesters indicated that the verdict condoned immorality.

“They are 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,” Abdulkalil Ibrahim, a protester told Africanews.

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,” expressed 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-s!x relationships.

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

The LGBTQ community in Kenya has often targeted by homophobic people, including 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-s!x sexual relations involving a minor and other categories of vulnerable people, or when the perpetrator is infected with HIV.

WARNING! All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express permission from ZAMBIA MONITOR.