Kenyan LGBTQ group launches online legal aid clinic
A Kenyan LGBTQ rights organization has adopted a virtual legal aid platform that allows its lawyers to offer free services to queer people remotely.
The Center for Minority Rights and Strategic Litigation, which unveiled the online LGBTQ+ Legal Aid Clinic platform, attributes the move to lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, including the wide use of online meetings. “The LGBTQ+ Online Legal Aid Clinic is, we believe, the first of its kind in Kenya providing pro bono legal advice services directly to the LGBTQ community,” CMRSL states.
The online legal aid clinic connecting CMRSL advocates and queer people via Zoom, Google, and other virtual platforms is an extension of the organization’s physical legal aid clinic launched in 2020 to consolidate the volunteer lawyers’ free legal services it has been offering since 2007.
The organization recognizes the Canadian government’s financial support in setting up the two legal aid clinics. Michael Kioko, a CMRSL advocate, told the Washington Blade the organization first thought about adopting an online legal aid clinic for the queer community during the COVID-19 period during which officials limited movement to combat the virus. “We noted that we could reach people far across the country like Kakuma Refugee Camp where we have attended to LGBTQ refugees and also realized that we could work with more volunteer advocates across the nation,” Kioko said.
