Washington Post: These LGBT refugees came to Kenya seeking freedom. Now they’ve been imprisoned and abused.
“On Feb. 22, activists, reporters, and well-wishers from Kenya and all over the world gathered in a courtroom in Nairobi, hoping to witness a historic moment: the decriminalization of homosexual conduct for the first time in conservative East Africa, a region where anti-LGBT crackdowns are common, sometimes even at the behest of presidents. A judge ultimately deflated the room with a last-minute postponement of the ruling … But on that same day, 20 LGBT refugees who had come to Kenya hoping to escape repression in countries like Uganda, Rwanda, and Congo were spending their first full day in jail. Their ordeal has now lasted nearly a month, and demonstrates the difficulties LGBT people in Kenya face regardless of what happens in the courts…” (Bearak, 3/19).