The High Court was expected to make a landmark ruling that could either affirm the criminalization of gay and lesbian relationships or strike out sections of the law that make it a punishable offense.
However the ruling has been postponed.
The High Court not able to rule on a case to decriminalize laws that target LGBT people, due to volumes of work involved, Judge Mwita proposes May 24th, 2019 as new ruling date.
Early this week there was a quiet air of excitement at the offices of the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC), for the a much-awaited ruling by Kenya’s High Court could make history.
The charity has fought hundreds of cases of abuse against sexual minorities in Kenya’s courts, but the verdict on whether to scrap British colonial-era laws criminalizing gay sex is undoubtedly their most eagerly anticipated case.
“We are excited and cautiously optimistic but optimistic nonetheless,” Lelei Cheruto from NGLHRC, one of the groups petitioning the court to decriminalize gay sex, told Reuters.
Same-sex relationships are a crime in more than 70 countries around the world, almost half of them in Africa. South Africa is the only African nation to have legalized gay marriage.
The law against gay sex in Kenya sections 162 and 165 was introduced during British rule more than 120 years ago.
Same-sex relationships are considered taboo and are a crime across most of the continent, with punishments ranging from imprisonment to death.
A 2017 report by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) found 33 African countries, out of a total of 54, criminalize same-sex relations.
The persecution of LGBT Africans is also widespread, with sexual minorities routinely being abused, blackmailed, assaulted by mobs, or even raped by police or vigilantes.