Kenyan anti-homosexuality bill would expel LGBTQ refugees
Refugees and asylum seekers who identify as LGBTQ would be expelled from Kenya under a proposed anti-homosexuality law. The Family Protection Bill, 2023, that would criminalize homosexuality with a life sentence, is currently under consideration by a parliamentary committee.
The measure, which opposition MP Peter Kaluma has sponsored, proposes changes to Kenya’s Penal Code that would prohibit consensual same-sex relations with a 14-year prison term.
The lawmaker notes that homosexuality, same-sex marriages and other so-called unnatural sexual acts go against “public morality” that threaten the family unit under Article 45 of Kenya’s constitution, which recognizes marriage as between people of the opposite sex. “The bill contains miscellaneous provisions that allow the expulsion of refugees and asylum seekers who breach the law, contains provisions for psychotherapy and rehabilitation of offenders and consequential amendments to other acts of Parliament,” the proposed law reads.
Kenya hosts more than half a million refugees in its Kakuma and Dadaab camps from neighboring nations: Burundi, Somalia, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo that face long-standing conflicts and insecurity.
