'Kick LGBT people out of Kenya completely,' says lawmaker Mohamed Ali, who believes homosexuality is a Western invention and is pushing for an anti-gay law like its neighbor Uganda
Ali is a member of Kenya's parliament. He is desperate to follow neighbour Uganda by unleashing a sweeping legislative crackdown on LGBTQ people. Even if he happened to be sick in intensive care, he would ask to be dragged to parliament to approve it.
, which was signed by President Yoweri Museveni at the end of May to the dismay of the LGBT community, human rights campaigners and Western capitals. In South Sudan, parliamentary spokesperson John Agany told Reuters that an anti-LGBT law with the same content as the Ugandan legislation was being drafted and would be put to a vote "very soon". He didn't elaborate on the bill, and the Juba government didn't respond to a request for comment.
The Kenyan anti-gay bill is being vetted by a parliamentary committee, which can then refer it to the full chamber for a vote. Officials have given no indication of the possible timeline.In a debate in parliament initiated by Ali in March about whether to ban speech or publications that promote same-sex relations, more than 20 lawmakers spoke out against LGBT rights and none in support.
The Kenyan bill's author, lawmaker Peter Kaluma, said the push to pass similar legislation to Uganda's was in part motivated by solidarity with its smaller neighbour, which has faced Western criticism over its law and seen the"Across the continent we want to have these laws," Kaluma added. "If they were to sanction Uganda, let them sanction the entirety of Africa."
The U.S. State Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the conference or the East African legislative moves.The Kenyan bill would toughen up a colonial-era statute under which gay sex was already illegal, though the older, less detailed law was rarely enforced.
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