Kenyan newspaper runs list of gay activists on front page
By Will Stroude
A Kenyan newspaper has published a list of some most prominent members of the country’s gay community on its front page.
Citizen Weekly exposed 12 LGBTI activists and prominent officials in yesterday’s addition, several of whom were previously in the closet and have been left fearing for their lives. We’ve cropped the front page as it reveals the faces and full names of these people, but here’s the top half:
Homosexual intercourse between two men is illegal in Kenya, where those found guilty face between five and 14 years imprisonment.
The paper’s top headline reads “Top gays, lesbians list in Kenya out”, though the inner article does not explictly call for violence against LGBT people, our friends over at Gay Star News report.
However, the move has echoes of incidents in neighbouring Uganda, where prominent activist David Kato was murdered after being named on the frontpage of a newspaper – and local activists fear the article could incite hatred and violence against those named, as well as the LGBT community at large.
“If homophobes were looking to target people, if the police were looking to arrest people, if anti-gay youths were looking to attack some teen they assume is gay, they now have a face and a name,’ Denis Nzioka – who was also named in the article – told Gay Star News.
“We are now walking targets. While some of the people on the list are open about being gay, some are not. It is putting every person’s career, life and family at risk.”
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