Otieno, who works in finance, was aware enough of his rights that he questioned the police officers’ actions and rebuffed their efforts to extort bribes from him. Photograph: Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images Other LGBTQ+ organisations in the country say they have anecdotal evidence of thousands of such cases.Īctivists want social media and dating sites to take action to stamp out catfishing. The NGLHRC legal aid centre has dealt with 679 such cases since its inception in 2013. That creates room for people to take advantage of queer individuals.”Īccording to Gateru, cases of blackmail and extortion are increasing, methods are becoming more sophisticated, and while this type of crime used to be limited to Nairobi, it has now spread to other areas of the country.Įxact figures on its prevalence are hard to come by and Gateru estimates that only about 10% of cases are reported. Njeri Gateru, executive director of NGLHRC, says: “The existence of laws that criminalise homosexuality create a landscape where anyone attracted to someone of the same gender is seen to belong to a lesser place in society, and as a criminal. There is another move to repeal section 162, which is at the root of this issue, now waiting to be heard in the court of appeal.
Kenya’s high court rejected a bid to repeal the law criminalising gay sex in 2019. Activists want social media companies to take action to stamp out the extortion.
GAY SEX SITES NOW MONEY NOW REGISTION CODE
With section 162 of the colonial-era penal code criminalising sexual acts deemed “unnatural”, there are fertile grounds for the practice to thrive. Otieno’s experience on social media sites or dating apps of being “catfished” – as using a fake identity to lure someone online is known – by people intending to extort money is common among members of the LGBTQ+ community in Kenya. Once the police knew a lawyer was involved, they took Otieno to the station but not before threatening him and demanding money to “make everything go away”. She rang Otieno and said she would meet him at the police station. He started to call friends, one of whom got in touch with a lawyer from the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC). Tom refused to hand over his phone to the police, even though they asked, because he knew he had done nothing wrong and they had not officially arrested him. A few months ago, I heard a transgender person was found dead and word went round that it was the police,” he says. They see other gay men you’ve been talking to and trace them Kelly Kigera, Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya Once in the car, he realised they were taking a longer route to the station and started to panic. Otieno agreed to go with them as long as they did not handcuff him. Then he punched me on the chest and bent me over the car bonnet.” Otieno refused and they accused him of having sex with a minor and started getting violent. The police asked him to get in their car to “help with an investigation”. I saw it was a chat and I saw my face on it.
“He was getting papers out of the envelope and looking at them and then at me. “One of them had this envelope,” he says.