Kenya may not be a safe place for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community at the moment as there is a deliberate witch-hunt for them by angry mobs, rights groups said on Monday.
Violence against the LGBT community is common in Kenya, where the penalty for being convicted for homosexuality is 14 years in jail, and the police are unwilling to investigate any report of assault on them, the rights groups affirmed.
According to a rights group in Kenya, the Human Rights Watch (HRW), violence against the LGBT community is spearheaded by religious leaders including Christian and Muslim leaders.
“Religious leaders have often been at the forefront of inciting violence against LGBT people.
“The government needs to do more to prevent and respond to violence against LGBT people,” Neela Ghoshal, a researcher with HRW, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The Police have also been said to humiliate, harass, degrade and victimise the LGBT community in the country, the HRW said.
The HRW stated that there have been at least 6 major incidents of violence against LGBT community along Kenya’s coastal area, which includes popular city of Mombasa.
The coastal towns of Diani and Ukunda were said to have recorded a major incident as recently as February when angry mobs threw caution into the air and kept vigils in a hunt for gay men to attack.
This was said to have happened after pictures of gay men caught in the act were circulated on social media. These led 50 gay men to flee their homes.
Two gay men were attacked and one of them landed in hospital after his chest was slashed with a broken bottle.
In his reaction however, Coast Regional Police Commander, Francis Wanjohi stated: “Police are meant to protect everybody, and that is what we do.”
“When we receive any report, we must investigate. That is our job… But again, you do not expect to be protected when you engage in criminal and unacceptable behaviour,” he told the Thomas Reuters foundation.
Homosexuality is illegal in most countries in Africa, just as many see it as “unnatural behaviour”.