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Kenya’s Bid for LGBT Equality Hits a Wall

Judges declined to overturn colonial-era laws criminalizing same-sex relationships. Human Rights Watch’s Neela Ghoshal says it’s a setback with regional repercussions.

By , an editorial fellow at Foreign Policy in 2019.
A person wearing a rainbow flag leaves the Milimani High Court in Nairobi after Kenya’s high court, in a much-awaited verdict, refused to scrap laws criminalizing same-sex relationships, on May 24.
A person wearing a rainbow flag leaves the Milimani High Court in Nairobi after Kenya’s high court, in a much-awaited verdict, refused to scrap laws criminalizing same-sex relationships, on May 24.
A person wearing a rainbow flag leaves the Milimani High Court in Nairobi after Kenya’s high court, in a much-awaited verdict, refused to scrap laws criminalizing same-sex relationships, on May 24. TONY KARUMBA/AFP/Getty Images

A three-year legal challenge from Kenya’s LGBT community that aimed to overturn sections of the country’s legal code that criminalize LGBT relationships has faltered. In Nairobi, a panel of judges determined on May 24 that the court would uphold the laws, which stem from a generic colonial-era legal template found across many Commonwealth countries that banned “carnal knowledge against nature.” Although prosecutions under the law are rare, they underwrite violence and discrimination, and they have been a key target for the country’s LGBT activists for years.

Jefcoate O'Donnell was an editorial fellow at Foreign Policy in 2019. Twitter: @brjodonnell

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