Remember the T in LGBTQIA+: Trans Community Faces Increasing Violence in Coastal Kenya
Recently Kenya has come into the global spotlight following the murder of fashion designer, model, and LGBTQIA+ activist Edwin Chiloba in a suspected hate crime in January 2023.
However, there are LGBTQIA+ people in Kenya who rarely make it into the global and even national media spotlight - people like Wayne, a monitor with the Center for Minority Rights, who is working to protect and support LGBTQIA+ people in the coastal region of Kenya.
In an interview with Weave News, Wayne, who preferred to keep their identity anonymous, said that trans people make up 70% of cases of violence reported to their center. But despite facing the majority of this persecution, trans people's struggle is rarely reflected in dominant narratives about LGBTQIA+ people in Kenya.
Criminalizing Identity
In 2015, then-president Uhuru Kenyatta classified the entire LGBTQIA+ community as a “non-issue.” But this community represents a diverse group of accomplished and complex beings, some of whom I got to know during my time studying in Kenya and interning at PEMA Kenya. Fast forward seven years and we see similar rhetoric coming from Kenyatta's successor and former deputy president, William Ruto.
Following his election victory in 2022, Ruto was asked to explain his stance on the rights of LGBTQIA+ people in Kenya. He stated that while he is against homosexuality because it is not acceptable in his Christian faith, he believes the rule of law should be respected and that it is illegal for citizens to harm or harass another citizen regardless of their identity.
However, respecting the rule of law in Kenya means that most LGBTQIA+ people struggle to live in Kenyan society without breaking the law. Sections 162 and 165 of the Kenyan penal code both criminalize same-sex relations. This law was reaffirmed in 2019 when its constitutionality was challenged in front of Kenya’s supreme court.
According to Wayne, this law often impedes any criminal investigation regarding violence against LGBTQIA+ people. Police often don’t fully pursue any investigation once they realize it involves an LGBTQIA+ person because, in Wayne’s words, “the constitution, section 162, doesn't even recognize them.”
The state of LGBTQIA+ rights in Kenya today
According to the Gay And Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (Galck+), 53% of LGBTQ+ people in the country are physically assaulted at some point in their life. The coastal counties of Kilifi, Kwale, and Mombasa have been some places most impacted by this violence.
A report from Human Rights Watch documents that between 2008 and 2015, there were at least six instances of mob violence against LGBTQIA+ people. Since the report was published, anti-LGBTQIA+ violence has persisted, with Galck+ documenting several recent cases.
Joash Mosoti, a peer educator at PEMA Kenya, was attacked and killed at his home in Mombasa in May 2021, and the culprits are still yet to be found. More recently, the murder of Sheila Lumumba highlighted violence against trans and non-binary people and the role of anti-trans/gender nonconforming rhetoric in the media.
Wayne described the intersecting forces that lead to the targeting of LGBTQIA+ people:
There is an increase in cases, especially verbal abuse, and threats…We have also seen forceful evictions, because once they go stay in a place, landlords notice they are queer or even neighbors complain, so these people are given notice…Blackmail and theft are on the rise because you find that there are so many apps like Grindr where most of our community members are targeted by even strangers…So they lure them in the form of a hookup and they meet them at their place, and that's when things are stolen or they are blackmailed.
When asked how often people get justice when these cases are reported, Wayne’s response was “never,” primarily due to the criminalization of being LGBTQIA+.
Despite how common everyday forms of violence and discrimination are, they are often not part of the story that makes it into the media when violence against LGBTIA+ people is recognized. Referring to the broader society, Wayne simply says, “they know it’s happening and they don’t care.”
Trans people face violence and a lack of recognition in Kenya
Unfortunately, for stories of LGBTQIA+ violence in Kenya to make it into the national or global media, it often requires an escalation to death or the involvement of prominent individuals like Edwin Chiloba.
The situation is even more desperate for trans and non-binary people. If the violence against them even makes it into the reporting of traditional media, they are often misgendered and written about with anti-trans language.
As Wayne reported, trans people are facing some of the highest rates of violence in coastal Kenya. Last year, a lawyer with the Center for Minority Rights and Strategic Litigation cited a pending case in which two transgender women were arrested for publicly hugging in Lamu and charged with violating sections 162 and 165 of the penal code.
Trans people, and trans women particularly, face misgendering and humiliation from a judicial system that often attempts to prosecute them as gay men. Despite the fact that forced anal examinations were ruled unconstitutional in 2018, lawyers said that police are still attempting to use these tactics against gay men and trans women.
This is reflected in a recent case that is attempting to challenge the use of these tactics by coastal police. The trans community in Kenya is on high alert after the death of Edwin Chiloba, which has emboldened those who hold anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiments.
Changing the narrative around LGBTQIA+ people in Kenya
Recently there have been calls by LGBTQIA+ organizations in Kenya to stop using stories of LGBTQIA+ people for clickbait and to recognize that there is more to the community than this violence. While the condition of trans and other LGBTQIA+ people in Kenya today is disheartening, it is important to recognize there is a vibrant community of people working to protect them and advance their rights in Kenya.
One of the most prominent organizations in the coastal region is PEMA Kenya, a community-based organization in Mombasa that has been working since 2008 to protect and improve the lives of gender and sexual minorities.
PEMA grew out of the tragic death of a gay man in Mombasa and has since expanded into one of the leading LGBTQIA+-focused organizations in Kenya. PEMA is a unique organization both in Kenya and globally as a core focus of their work is engaging with religious leaders to increase community tolerance towards LGBTQIA+ people.
Religion remains a major point of contestation for LGBTQIA+ people in Kenya and is one of the core sources of their continued marginalization. There is a lack of recognition, especially in the dominant media narrative, that the Kenyan LGBTQIA+ community is actively building bridges with the larger society, especially through religious leaders.
A win for LGBTQIA+ rights - and a backlash
LGBTQIA+ rights in Kenya have been characterized by a series of small wins. One of these came in February 2023 when the Kenyan Supreme Court ruled that LGBTQIA+ organizations have the right to register as non-profits.
Unfortunately, victories for LGBTQIA+ groups in Kenya are often met with a proportional anti-LGBTQIA+ response.
Following the supreme court ruling, Kenyan MPs attempting to assert their conservative values could be heard in the national assembly saying things like, “whether it's sodomy, whether it's lesbianism, whether it's queerness, whether it is anything that is outwardly practiced by these characters who say they have human rights. They may have their rights in private, and I'm sorry I shiver and shudder when I imagine what they do in private because it is totally repugnant, especially to us Africans.”
Another MP even went as far as to threaten violence against LGBTQIA+ people, saying, “I am telling people who I represent from Amoko, if you see gays and lesbians, tell them to be wary of me because I am going to tell you what we're going to do with them.”
While political and media discussions of these issues often do not directly recognize trans people, the discourse focuses heavily on sex and the biological sex of people engaging in it. This type of rhetoric often endangers trans people by connecting them to laws which target LGBTQIA+ people based on the real or perceived biological sex of romantic or sexual partners.
The future of trans rights in Kenya
According to Wayne, the priority for their organization right now is sensitizing the general community to LGBTQIA+ people.
“In the near future, we are hoping that once we sensitize a lot of people, they will feel like LGBT people are a part of us, and when we go to report a case we will say this is a transgender person who has been violated, the police will know who a transgender person is because most of the police don’t even know, that's why we are focusing on sensitization,” Wayne said.
Another primary goal Wayne referenced was repealing section 162 of the penal code, arguing it runs counter to Article 27 of the Kenyan constitution, which guarantees every person's equality under the law and freedom from discrimination.
While the future of transgender people and broader LGBTQIA+ rights in Kenya seems unclear, what is obvious is that people like Wayne and community-based organizations like the Center for Minority Rights and PEMA Kenya will be at the forefront of change.
Banner image by Daniel James on Upsplash.
