The report by Open For Business – an alliance of big companies including tech companies Google and Microsoft and Deutsche Bank – estimated anti-gay attitudes were shaving off up to 1.7 percent of Kenya’s annual gross domestic product (GDP).
The report further broke down how discrimination against sexual minorities in Kenya is costing the country up to $1.3 billion (Over Sh100 billion) annually, a report by a coalition of global businesses said, attributing the losses to missed tourism earnings, poor health and less employment of LGBT+ people.
“A lot of the conversations on LGBT inclusion across the world are based on people’s perceptions, rather than facts,” Yvonne Muthoni, Kenya programme director at Open For Business, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“This report aims to provide a fact-based argument that LGBT inclusion is not just good for the LGBT community, but for the economy – and that means for every single citizen in the country.”
Homosexuality is taboo in the largely conservative Christian country and persecution of sexual minorities is rife. British colonial-era laws in Kenya criminalise gay sex with up to 14 years in jail.
As a result, tens of thousands of sexual minorities in the east African nation face prejudice in getting jobs, renting housing, seeking medical care or accessing education, say LGBT+ rights campaigners.
The findings of the report could help in changing negative perceptions of LGBT+ people in Kenya, and also strengthen the argument for same-sex relations to be decriminalised ahead of a high court ruling on May 24, they add.
The report estimated Kenya’s tourism industry was missing out on up to $140 million per year in foreign earnings because LGBT+ tourists were opting not to visit due to homophobic views.