Queer in Kenya
Meet the organisation fighting discrimination and building LGBTQIA community in rural Kenya
“I love Gen Z but why do they insist on coming out? Never admit. Deny, deny, deny! At least until you are standing on your own two feet.” I’m in the offices of LEHA, an organisation for LBQ+ women and non-binary people living in Kenya’s second most populous county. These words, partly tongue-in-cheek, were spoken by LEHA’s advocacy officer Suzan just after she puts the phone down to a woman in distress. They are maybe not what you’d expect to hear from someone working for an organisation dedicated to empowering LBQ+ women and non-binary folk. But they reflect the reality of operating in a country where sexual relationships between people of the same sex are criminalised and where being LGBTQIA is highly stigmatised.
BY SIÂN LAMBERT
SIÂN LAMBERT (she/her) is a communicator and campaigner. She loves learning about the diversity of LGBTQIA life and how we can work together to build queer community.
@sianl13
The caller was a 21-year-old university student who has been living with a cousin and working part-time in her cousin’s business. Without her own access to the internet, she’s also been using her cousin’s device to message her girlfriend and this is what prompted the call. The cousin has discovered the messages and challenged the caller, and she admitted that she is in a relationship with another woman. The cousin reacted very badly and, in one fell swoop, the caller was thrown out of home and lost her job.