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Kenyan queer rights groups want MPs to dismiss a petition by anti-LGBTQ activists and religious organizations seeking a crackdown on what they describe as a proliferation of homosexuality in the country.
The groups in their written submissions to the National Assembly’s Public Petitions Committee argue the petition presented to parliament in February last year lacks evidence to back up the claims.
“The raft of allegations is presented on their own strength and have no documents to substantiate the said claims,” reads part of the submissions led by KELIN, a coalition of health and human rights bodies. “They claim diseases attributed to the community without any medical proof of the same. The community requests parliament not to be swayed by opinions, preferences, and biases in considering the petition.”
Mohamed Ali, an MP from Kenya’s ruling party that fiercely opposes LGBTQ rights, is the representative of the petitioners as one who presented the measure in the House for probe. The petitioners comprise a group of more than 70 Kenyans from anti-LGBTQ lobby groups and religious bodies under the Kenya Christians Professional Forum and the Muslim Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya.
The parliamentary committee on Aug. 5 had invited queer rights groups, including KELIN, GALCK+, the Center for Minority Rights and Strategic Litigation, and Initiative for Equality and Non-Discrimination for a hearing.
“We arrived with partners prepared to make submissions opposing the petition by Hon. Mohamed Ali on the so-called ‘proliferation of LGBTQ persons in the country.’ The committee was not ready to proceed and rescheduled to Aug. 7,” CMRSL Legal Manager Michael Kioko said.
The rescheduled meeting was again postponed indefinitely to an unclear date because the Public Petitions Committee was “illegally constituted” and the queer rights groups were told to wait until members elect its leadership to be duly composed.
The prolonged delay by the committee to inquire into the petition, while the groups wait to appear before it, has been further extended after the parliament on Aug. 20 proceeded on a long break of one month.
The LGBTQ rights groups’ submissions the Washington Blade has seen acknowledge the petitioners’ constitutional right to engage parliament on legislative matters as the people’s representatives, while noting the House should not be used as a platform to discriminate against the queer community.
“The community points out that the petitioners, while relying on the Constitution to approach parliament, are deliberately orchestrating unconstitutional actions against the community,” the queer rights groups state.
They also argue that the petitioners’ bid to have the queer rights curtailed violates national laws under the Bill of Rights forbidding any form of discrimination and the international conventions like the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which Kenya has ratified.
The respondents, while challenging the petitioners over the accusation that the Supreme Court overstretched its mandates in an attempt to legalize homosexuality from its recent rulings in favor of the queer community, argued that the anti-LGBTQ lobby groups were simply “fear-mongering” on the effects of the judges’ decisions. They accuse the petitioners of spreading misinformation and note that the court only granted the queer community their constitutional freedom of association by allowing the registration of their LGBTQ organization blocked by the NGOs’ regulator.
“The community prays that parliament, in considering the petition, is guided by the same ruling as actually summarized and with regard to the right of association and all other rights of the community as members and simply as human beings,” the submissions read.
On the petitioners’ plea for MPs to probe what they describe as an infiltration of the LGBTQ agenda into the Kenyan school books for children to “confuse and mislead them,” the queer rights groups term the claim “far-fetched” for not being backed by evidence from the body overseeing the school curriculum.
The respondents also note the petitioners did not provide any proof of having shared their concerns with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development on the alleged LGBTQ materials in school books.
While asking MPs to reject the petition “in toto” over lack of proof, the queer rights groups note that LGBTQ people have faced harassment and systemic derogation of their rights guaranteed under the constitution and various international laws.
“The petitioners have now resorted to parliament to pass their discriminatory agenda against the LGBTQ community,” the submissions read.
The parliamentary committee, when fully constituted to inquire into the petition, will also hear from several government ministers, including Education, Health, Foreign Affairs, Labor and Social Protection, and the Police Inspector General.
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