Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa
MTWAPA, Kenya – Hours before Kenya’s first gay wedding was to due take place, it was violently stopped by protesting youths and police.
Dozens of Christian and Muslim adolescents raided the apartment where the gay couple and another man lived in order to stop the wedding. The youths banded together under the name “Operation Gays Out.”
The police intervened and arrested several wedding guests, five of whom were suspected homosexuals.
“I sent Mtwapa OCS to rescue them from angry residents baying for their blood because they were trying to conduct that marriage between two men,” said Kilifi police chief Grace Kakai.
Homosexuality is illegal in Kenya and almost all of Africa is homophobic. South Africa is the only African country that allows gay marriage.
When asked about Kenya’s intense homophobia, Kenyan police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said, “It’s culture, just culture. It’s what you are taught when you are young and what you hear in church. Homosexuality it unnatural. It’s wrong.”
The wedding was supposed to be secret. It was to take place at a private villa but a group of locals found out and a mob quickly formed. They headed to Kikambala, a beach town on Kenya’s coast, where the ceremony was to be held. Bystanders heard them say that the people at the wedding should be burned.
“You know, down at the coast, where there are so many tourists, people tolerate a lot,” said Kiraithe. “But this is too much. These people were nearly stoned.”
The two men who were set to be married were not arrested but the five who were may be subject to testing to determine whether or not they had “illegal carnal knowledge of each other.” No reason has been given for letting the engaged men go.
Muslim and Christian clergymen condemn the planned marriage.
Sheikh Ali Hussein of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya said, “We cannot allow these young boys to ruin their future through homosexuality. We shall use all means to curb this vice.”
Added Bishop Lawrence Chai of the National Council of Churches of Kenya, “This is immoral and we shall not allow it, especially here in Mtwapa.”
A Kenyan gay rights organization has appealed to the Human Rights Commission to step in.
For more information, please see:
AFP – Five Arrested in Kenya Over Planned Gay Wedding – 12 February 2010
BBC – Kenyan Police Raid ‘Gay Wedding’ and Arrest Five Men – 12 February 2010
Daily Nation – Mob Attacks Gay ‘Wedding’ Party – 12 February 2010
NY Times – Kenyan Police Disperse Gay Wedding – 12 February 2010
BBC – Kenya Chiefs Block Mombasa Gay Wedding – 11 February 2010
