Kenya’s high court upholds ban on gay sex
26 May, 2019
Kenya’s high court on Friday upheld a law banning gay sex, keeping same sex relations punishable by 14 years in jail in the East African nation and drawing strong criticism from the United Nations and rights activists.
Same-sex relationships are a crime in more than 70 countries around the world, almost half of them in Africa. Neighboring Uganda once enacted a law imposing a life sentence for certain acts of gay sex although it was later nullified by court.
South Africa is the only African nation to have legalized gay marriage.
“We hereby decline the relief sought and dismiss the combined petition,” Justice Roselyn Aburili told a packed courtroom in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, relaying the unanimous opinion of the three-justice panel.
“We find that the impugned sections are not unconstitutional, accordingly the combined petitions have no merit.”
Some gay rights activists wept outside the courtroom after the verdict while supporters of the ban clapped, congratulated each other and yelled “thank you” at the judges’ bench.
Other people backing the ban held placards outside the court with messages, including “homosexuality is an abomination.”
Campaigners who filed the petition to decriminalize gay sex argued that the law violated Kenya’s 2010 Constitution, which guarantees equality, dignity and privacy for all citizens.
“We will appeal. We expect that the court of appeal will overturn this erroneous decision which in our view is very biased,” said Eric Gitari, one of the petitioners.
The justices, who began hearing the case last year, threw out the petition on the grounds that gay sex clashed with broader, traditional moral values encapsulated in Kenya’s Constitution.
Aburili said the Constitution still outlaws same-sex marriage but that allowing gay sex would “open the door for same sex unions.”
“We cannot be another Sodom and Gomorrah,” Alfred Rotich, a Catholic bishop, told Reuters at the court after the verdict.
Source: