The Anti-Gay Violence in Mtwapa and Mombasa, Kenya

This report needs no embellishment. It needs no comment. It needs no writing up.

Read of the events that happened in Mtwapa, and Mombasa, Kenya over the last week. And, remember that more demonstrations are planned after the Friday Prayers tomorrow (19 Feb, 2010). Of course the police roll will be there to do what they have already done. Ostensibly protecting gay people. Actually...

Here is the excerpt from the article, of a Church and Mosque led bout of 'Ethnic Cleansing'

Kenya's government should act quickly to protect people accused of homosexual conduct and groups offering HIV/AIDS services from vigilante attacks, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Kenyan authorities.

The vigilante violence has hit Mtwapa, a coastal town northeast of Mombasa, in recent days and appears to be spreading to Mombasa and elsewhere. Human Rights Watch called on Kenya's government to speak out against the voices that incite hatred and foment the attacks.

"The government is sitting silent while mobs try to kill human rights defenders and assault people they suspect are gay," said Dipika Nath, researcher in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) rights program at Human Rights Watch. "Inaction is complicity, and silence can be lethal."

In late January, 2010, unsubstantiated rumors about a "gay wedding" scheduled for February 12 started circulating in Mtwapa, in Kilifi District. Local and national radio stations picked up the unconfirmed story. On February 7, several imams and muftis (Islamic scholars) told their congregations during Friday prayers to be vigilant and to "expose" homosexuals in Mtwapa.

On February 11, Sheikh Ali Hussein of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya and Bishop Lawrence Chai of the National Council of Churches of Kenya held a news conference. As reported by Daily Nation and by other witnesses who have spoken to Human Rights Watch, the two religious leaders demanded an investigation of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), a government health center that provides HIV/AIDS services to the community. They criticized the government for "providing counselling services to these criminals" and demanded that the KEMRI office in Mtwapa be shut down, the reports said.

Local activists told Human Rights Watch that, in a statement after the meeting, the religious leaders promised to "flush out gays." The Daily Nation reported that Chai is the leader of a network called "Operation Gays Out," whose actual numbers and aims are not known.

On February 12, an armed mob of 200 to 300 people surrounded the KEMRI health center. Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that a man called "Faridi," an organizer of the mob, said a KEMRI staff member was homosexual because he wore a T-shirt promoting safer sex. In response, police who were at the scene took him and another KEMRI staffer into custody.

Earlier the same day, Faridi, with police, forcibly entered another private individual's home, claiming that the two people in the house were homosexual. Police took the two into custody, too. Local activists have informed Human Rights Watch that none of the men were charged and they have all since been released, and that the police were attempting to protect them from violence by taking them into custody.

The mob beat senseless another man who was approaching the health center and was about to set him on fire when the police arrived and took him into custody as well.

A large crowd gathered outside the police station where the five were being held. A religious leader addressed the mob, saying all homosexuals should be driven out of Mtwapa, and another speaker encouraged the mob to not bother bringing homosexuals to the police but rather to take the law into its own hands, witnesses said. Other speakers said that homosexuals had appeared in Mtwapa when KEMRI opened its offices there. Smaller groups reportedly went to the homes of other people suspected of being gay and threatened them.

Local sources told Human Rights Watch that the mob attacks appeared planned rather than spontaneous. Â According to reports received by Human Rights Watch, none of the attackers have been arrested.

Accounts of the attacks and arrests filled the front pages of the next day's local and national newspapers.

A mob attacked and severely beat up another KEMRI volunteer on February 13, and the police again took the victim into custody. The same day, a person was beaten up in Mombasa on suspicion of being gay, and a second person was attacked in Mombasa on February 16. Local activists are attempting to determine the condition and whereabouts of those victims.

Sheikh Ali Hussein declared on the radio on February 17 that Muslims would march in Mtwapa on February 19 to protest against homosexuality. Local activists fear the demonstration may extend to mosques along the coast, including in Mombasa.

"The police need to arrest the attackers and put a halt to what appears to be a coordinated nationwide attack on people perceived to be homosexual," Nath said. "The disruption of lifesaving HIV/AIDS work could mean a public health catastrophe as well as a human rights disaster."

The attacks and hate-mongering and the government's failure to act have spread fear in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, Human Rights Watch said. Several people have gone into hiding; others are preparing to flee their homes at a moment's notice.

The attacks on the health center risk exacerbating the HIV/AIDS epidemic not only among men who have sex with men, but among all Kenyans. Â HIV prevalence in Kenya is more than 16 percent, and more than 1.5 million Kenyans have died from HIV/AIDS-related illness.

Vigilante violence and panic promote an atmosphere in which any discussion of sexuality will be silenced, and vulnerable populations driven underground, Human Rights Watch said. KEMRI's Mtwapa offices have been closed since the attacks. There are plans to reopen the center, but KEMRI staff remain nervous about further attacks.

Although the declared reason for the six men's detention was to protect them, news reports said authorities asked the men to submit to forensic examinations to determine if they are homosexual. Five of them refused and the sixth consented and was examined, although no "evidence" of homosexuality is reported to have been found. Forensic medical examinations to "prove" homosexual conduct are archaic and discredited.

Yes, do remember that it is very likely that, after prayers on Friday, more of the same might occur.


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Gay Pogrom in Mombasa, Kenya. UPDATE

I am not kidding you.

This is happening in this world of ours. And, it is the year of our lord 2010

Gay Attacks in Mombasa - Developing Story

David Kuria  

The attacks on Gays which started on Thursday, and continued to  Friday and Saturday are bound to take a new twist today, with the presentation of 6 gay men to court. Although being homosexual is not a crime in Kenya, the police with the help of the public have continued to arrest people suspected of being homosexuals. Most of the people have been arrested from their offices or as in the case of two of the men, while boarding public transport - each in a different location.

Reports from Mombasa indicate local politicians are actively involved in the exercise of identifying people suspected to be homosexuals. On Monday 15th Feb, media reports indicated that police in the coastal town have beefed up security operations, with the intention of identifying and arresting suspected homosexuals. Public facilities and clubs suspected of hosting homosexuals will be closed down - reports indicate.

Medical professionals have also been relocated from attending normal hospital operations to help the police with quick identification of the homosexuals through medical examinations. It is assumed that many people will be arrested during the police swoops and the medical professionals will help in filtering those who will be taken to court and those to be released.

 Kenya, with a population of 40 million people has less than 5000 doctors. Reassigning the doctors to identify suspected homosexuals is interesting for a country where patients share single beds in most district hospitals. It is not clear how many doctors have been taken to Mombasa to help with this exercise.

Last Updated ( Monday, 15 February 2010 06:25 )

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I did notice some funny things about what the BBC was reporting in Mombasa Kenya. Matter of fact, I noted that the report from the Daily Nation seemed  to be more factual and the narrative more 'there on the spot' and logical.

Someone has noted it too.

Canning said that a number of Kenyan gay sources have confirmed there was no wedding including the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya, which blamed the riot on media incitement.

The first BBC report had carried a brief reference to statements by Kenyan gay community condemning arrests of gays by local police but not their refutation of the wedding claim.

Canning has tracked the timeline of the events.

A riot started on Friday following a report in Kenya's newspaper The Daily Nation, and subsequent radio reports, of a supposed 'gay wedding' at Mtwapa, a Indian Ocean beach resort, north-east of Kenya's second city.

Kenyan gay activists say the newspaper report was based on "rumors started in a hair salon" following a practical joke on a local radio station and that there never was a planned 'wedding'.GayUganda reports receiving email saying that "one of our Guys made a joke last week that he was getting married to his lover, this issue has been picked by Radio Rahma and it's inciting Muslims against Gay men".

Activists claim that presenters on the radio stations Kaya and Baraka FM had been inciting people, with Radio Rahama asking Muslims to "find these men".

Canning said:

"It is shocking that the BBC is carrying the incitement to murder of gay men by the local media and clerics, repeating as fact their claims. The local TV footage shows terrified gays holding a meeting at a clinic as part of a HIV vaccine research project surrounded by a mob being hauled out by police - but the BBC refers to 'Crowds gathered' and 'protests'."

"This reporting plays down what it is a clear attempt to massacre local gay men. Why has the BBC not spoken to the organised gay community?"

"Would the BBC have carried the fantastical claims made by Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines prior to the Rwandan genocide as fact? African media regularly carries fantastical claims about gays. The BBC should be far more careful than it is being in repeating those claims as fact."