Kenyan advocacy group uses social initiatives to fight homophobia

A Kenyan queer rights organisation has introduced a social support initiative to address the widespread homophobic stigma and discrimination in the country.

The Initiative for Equality and Non-Discrimination, which has provided education on LGBTQ+ rights to judicial officers, utilises sports and other social activities to promote awareness against anti-queer discrimination, ‘Washington Blade’ reports.

Based in Mombasa, INEND recently contributed soccer jerseys, balls, goalpost nets, and other sports equipment to local teams as part of its “Advocacy Mtaani” or “Advocacy at the Grassroots” campaign. This platform was also used to educate beneficiaries and the broader community about queer rights issues.

Earlier, the organisation distributed umbrellas on October 29 to “boda boda” or “public motorbike riders,” offering protection from the sun and rain.

“We provided umbrellas at various 'boda boda' stages to equip the operators and further our message of inclusion and violence prevention, aiming for these operators to become champions of human rights in society,” stated INEND, led by Executive Director Essy Adhiambo.

INEND also launched “Davii and Oti,” a comic strip detailing tales of pride and allyship, featuring characters who represent heterosexual, nonbinary, gay, and lesbian identities. This series addresses various socio-cultural and economic challenges, such as discrimination and violence faced by queer individuals in different social settings.

“This engaging queer comic challenges the misuse of 'family values,' African culture, and traditions as arguments against the LGBTQ+ community in Kenya,” INEND explained.

The comic strip promotes inclusivity and nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, while also offering messages of self-acceptance, resilience, and economic empowerment for queer individuals.

INEND has also developed regional human rights advocacy training sessions focusing on misinformation, disinformation, and digital rights, targeting women, queer individuals, and other marginalised groups.

For instance, last month, the organisation trained women leaders and queer individuals in the coastal areas of Mombasa and Kilifi, with another session in the western county of Busia, bordering Uganda.

“These trainings are crucial as we observe an increase in online gender-based violence, especially targeting LGBTQ+ individuals,” INEND remarked.

The training sessions aimed at creating safe digital environments for “structurally silenced women and queer persons” are conducted in collaboration with global organizations Access Now and the Association for Progressive Communications.

Following the release of a judicial guidebook last October designed to help judges protect queer rights, INEND has intensified regional training for judicial officers nationwide. Recently, through its “Access to Justice” initiative, the organisation provided training for judicial officers in Kisumu, Kenya’s third-largest city, as well as in the North Rift region and Kilifi.

The two-day training starting on November 5 focused on enhancing the sensitivity of judicial officers towards queer individuals and fostering empathy towards sexual and gender minority groups to foster a “fairer and more inclusive legal system” that respects everyone’s dignity.

This training follows the unveiling of a July report titled “Transforming Perceptions,” which evaluates the impact of sensitisation workshops with 53 judges and magistrates in 2022 on protecting queer rights.

“The findings provide hope for a more inclusive justice system,” the report indicates. “Over 70 percent of judicial officers surveyed acknowledged that laws like Sections 162, 163, and 165 of the penal code, which criminalize consensual same-sex intimacy, negatively impact societal attitudes towards LGBTQ+ individuals.”

The report also highlights that 80 percent of judicial officers trained on queer rights expressed comfort or indifference about living next to a queer person.

Pema Kenya, another advocacy group, is working to enhance judicial officers' sensitivity to queer issues in their case handling.

In September, the group held a two-day session on gender and sexuality for members of Kenya’s Judicial Service Commission, the judiciary's top governing body.

“This initiative aims to provide crucial knowledge and skills to key judicial stakeholders to handle gender and sexuality-related cases with empathy, understanding, and professionalism,” stated Pema Kenya.