This Kenyan tabloid has published photos of the country’s ‘top homos’
A tabloid newspaper in Kenya has begun printing lists of “top homos” in an attempt to out gay people.
Gay rights groups have expressed concern that the publication of a list of fourteen apparently gay people in the weekly tabloid the Weekly Citizen, will increase the persecution of LGBT people in Kenya.
The article, accompanied by ten front page photos, included a number of LGBT rights activists.
This is not the first time LGBT rights activists have been “outed” by a tabloid – in 2010, the Ugandan tabloid Red Pepper in 2010 first published a list of gay people under a banner stating “hang them”. The paper included a photo of activist David Kato who was murdered within three months.
Then, in 2014, the Red Pepper published a list of what it called “200 homos” – a day after President Yoweri Museveni signed a tough anti-gay bill into law.
Although the Weekly Citizen’s article does not include calls for violence or to kill the gay people listed, there are still concerns that it could place people in danger.
Gay rights activists are reaching out to the people on the list in an attempt to ensure that they are all out of danger.
This comes just a month after Kenya’s High Court ruled that the government can no longer block LGBT groups from formally registering their organisations.
In December last year, a court in the country established a precedent that affirms basic rights for intersex people.
Last year the president of Kenya signed a law legalising heterosexual polygamy, while maintaining a ban on gay sex.
The above image has been edited to protect the identities of those pictured
