Africa
Kenyan MPs to consider anti-LGBTQ measures when Parliament reconvenes
Lawmakers urged to crackdown on homosexuality in the country
Kenyan MPs are set to consider several anti-homosexuality proposals when Parliament reconvenes on Tuesday after a two-month break.
A group of more than 70 Kenyans from anti-LGBTQ lobby groups and religious organizations under the Kenya Christians Professional Forum and the Muslim Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya petitioned Parliament on Feb. 1 to probe what they describe as the proliferation of homosexuality in the country.
The groups in their petition claim there have been “persistent, well-choreographed and well-funded” attempts by LGBTQ rights activists over the last decade to have anti-homosexuality laws declared unconstitutional.
“They have filed numerous court cases and petitions in our courts,” reads the petition submitted to the National Assembly that Speaker Moses Wetang’ula heads. “This has not only been witnessed in Kenya but also many African countries including Uganda, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia and many others.”
The petitioners consider discrimination based on “sexual orientation and gender identity” used to push for the rights and freedoms of the LGBTQ community globally as “alien” terminologies not just to Africans but to “anyone with a moral fiber in their being.”
They accuse the National Council on Administration of Justice, a judicial body of state and non-state members, of plotting to “revise our moral code” through amendments to the Penal Code that criminalize consensual same-sex relations.
The petitioners also raise a concern over last year’s controversial Supreme Court ruling that allowed the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission to register as a non-governmental organization, which they warn will have a serious impact on the family in Kenya if left unchallenged because it allows the legalization of LGBTQ people.
“There have been concerted efforts from foreign non-state actors through financial lobbying to effect changes to our penal law to decriminalize such acts long criminalized such as homosexuality,” reads the petition. “This is the beginning of a slippery slope from which the country may not recover if left unattended.”
The petitioners further allege the infiltration of LGBTQ-specific content in children’s school books and want Parliament to urgently investigate unsanctioned publishers and book distributors and hold responsible individuals accountable.
MPs are expected to approve a presidential education reform working group report presented to President William Ruto last August. Its recommendations include hiring pastors and imams in public elementary and high schools to fight homosexuality and other so-called immoral practices.
The petitioners want MPs to also inquire into what they describe as public recruitment of students into the LGBTQ community in universities and colleges through meetings on sexual freedoms and minority rights.
“These are inoculation and breeding grounds for the LGBTQ agenda,” reads the petition. “Unless Parliament intervenes and has these activities nipped in the bud, the moral decay we have seen over the last couple of years will continue to dizzying levels.”
Government officials the petitioners want to grill over LGBTQ activities and foreign funding of them in the country include Education Minister Ezekiel Machogu, Health Minister Susan Nakhumicha, Foreign Affairs Minister Musalia Mudavadi, Labor and Social Protection Minister Florence Bore and Police Inspector General Japhet Koome.
Another proposed anti-homosexuality law expected to be introduced in the National Assembly during the session is the long-awaited Family Protection Bill, sponsored by opposition MP Peter Kaluma, which contains punitive provisions that include a 50-year prison sentence for gays and lesbians convicted of non-consensual sex.
Kaluma’s bill, which the petitioners on the proliferation of LGBTQ practices in the country want its legislation fast-tracked, also proposes a ban on gay Pride parades, assemblies, street marchers, cross-dressing in public and all LGBTQ-related activities. The bill has been pending before Parliament’s Social Protection Committee since last June.
Kaluma complained about the committee’s delay to Wentang’ula in August.
MPs are also expected to consider a proposed law on surrogacy, the Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill 2022, which seeks to help individuals with infertility problems to use surrogate mothers and in vitro fertilization to have children.
The bill, which is sponsored by another opposition MP, Millie Odhiambo, however, would prohibit gays and lesbians from having children via surrogate.
The National Assembly first approved it in November 2021, but its finalization stalled in the Senate when the 12th Parliament’s term ended in August 2022 before the general election. This delay rendered the bill “dead” under National Assembly rules because it can only proceed after its reintroduction in the current Parliament.
Odhiambo, who retained her parliamentary seat, reintroduced the bill in the National Assembly last May. The Health Committee will also accept additional proposals.
The committee who Dr. Robert Pukose chairs last September tabled the report with numerous amendments to the bill for adoption. Some of the proposed amendments included the deletion of the term “couple or parties to a marriage” defined as a man and a woman who are in an association that may be recognized as a marriage under any law in Kenya and replaced with the term “intending parents” for individuals seeking to have children using surrogacy and IVF.
The committee argues the term “couple or parties to a marriage” is discriminatory and that marriage should not be a requirement for individuals to access assisted reproductive technology services, although same-sex marriages are outlawed in Kenya.
“The bill aids couples or individuals with challenges of conceiving naturally and in this way, it addresses the reproductive health needs of Kenyans,” the committee’s report reads, a position which locks out gays and lesbians from parenting through surrogacy.
The bill would also criminalize the commercialization of surrogacy or related activities, such as procuring a surrogate mother by any person, an organization and any medical facility with hefty fines and jail terms.
During the session, MPs are also expected to approve Kenya’s revised National Policy and Action Plan on Human Rights that Attorney General Justin Muturi’s office is drafting to replace the 2014 one whose 5-year implementation period has lapsed.
The new policy, which should be in place by this year, according to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, involved gathering views on human rights from the public, state and non-state actors including LGBTQ lobby groups in nationwide dialogues between August and October last year.
The regional dialogues culminated in a national conference in Nairobi late last year on developing the policy.
Li Fung, senior human rights advisor to the U.N. Resident Coordinator in Kenya, attended the gathering during which Kaluma, while representing Wetang’ula, expressed Parliament’s concerns over “constant erosion of hard-fought rights” in the country and Africa with LGBTQ rights.
“Until LGBTQ rights are universally agreed to by the U.N. General Assembly, as long as we (MPs) sit in the Parliament, we will not accept them as human rights in Kenya and they will not find space in our body of laws,” Kaluma stated.
The lawmaker’s warning followed criticism of his anti-homosexuality bill by Irungu Houghton, executive director of Amnesty International Kenya and chair of non-state actors on National Human Rights Dialogues, who said it promotes hate against LGBTQ refugees and the queer community at large.
“We do not need any form of identity-based discrimination and more hatred in this republic,” Houghton said. He reiterated the “greatest threat” to Kenya and the constitution is the belief that “some human beings” do not deserve equality, dignity and protection under the law.
Egypt
Egyptian authorities refuse to allow gay cruise to dock in country
Scarlet Lady earlier this week blocked from visiting Turkey
Egyptian authorities have refused to allow a gay cruise to dock in the country.
The Scarlet Lady, a Virgin Voyages ship that Atlantis Events chartered, was to have docked in Alexandria, a port city on the Mediterranean Sea. The Washington Blade obtained a letter that Atlantis Events President Rich Campbell sent to passengers on Thursday, hours before the cruise was to have arrived.
“Early this morning, we were informed that Scarlet Lady has been denied entry into Egyptian waters and, as a result, will no longer be able to call in Alexandria today,” he wrote.
“I know how much this visit meant to so many of you,” added Campbell. “We successfully sailed a similar itinerary last year, so we were surprised by this unfortunate decision.”
Campbell noted “both the Atlantis and Virgin Voyages teams worked tirelessly to make this call in Alexandria a possibility.”
“This news came as a surprise to all of us, and we’re just as disappointed as you are,” he said.
The 10-day cruise left Athens on July 5. It is scheduled to end in Trieste, Italy, on July 15.
The ship had been scheduled to dock in Kusadasi, a Turkish resort town on the Aegean Sea, and Istanbul earlier this week. Turkish authorities refused to allow it in the country.
Former Tempe, Ariz., Mayor Neil Giuliano, who is an LGBTQ+ Victory Institute board member, is among those on the cruise.
“Just a few hours before arriving in Alexandria, Egypt — a city founded by and named for one of the ancient world’s best-known homosexuals — government authorities rescinded permission for our ship of 2,000 gay men to enter Egypt,” wrote Steve May, who is also on the ship, on Thursday in a Facebook post.
Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in 331 B.C.
“As with Turkey, we have been sent away not because of what we did, but because of who we said we are,” said May. “‘I am what I am’ is too much liberty for some to bear. So it was in the United States as well not long ago, where even I ended up as a convicted homosexual after a military trial in 2001 for saying ‘I am gay.’ This is just a reminder that for all the progress we have made, our freedom is never secure — for any of us, regardless of who or how we love. Back to Europe!”
Discrimination and persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity is commonplace in Egypt. The Egyptian Football Association, along with the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran, objected to playing in the World Cup’s “Pride Match” that took place in Seattle on June 26.
Iran and Egypt on Friday faced off during the World Cup’s “Pride Match” in Seattle.
Iran is among the handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death. Discrimination and persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity is commonplace in Egypt.
Friday’s match coincided with Pride weekend in Seattle. The Egyptian Football Association and the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran both objected to playing in the “Pride Match.”
Egypt and Iran tied 1-1.
FIFA, for its part, allowed Pride flags inside the stadium during the match.
“The FIFA World Cup 2026 is an inclusive event that welcomes people from all backgrounds,” a FIFA spokesperson told the Washington Blade in a statement. “Fans of all sexual orientations and gender identities are welcome at matches and events. General statements of human rights, including rainbow flags and other flags representing sexual orientation and gender identity, are permitted under the FIFA World Cup 2026™ Stadium Code of Conduct and may be displayed inside stadiums provided they are used in a manner consistent with the code.”
Human Rights Watch welcomed FIFA’s decision to allow Pride flags inside the stadium. Outright International, a global LGBTQ and intersex rights group, distributed Pride flags in Seattle on Friday, which was Pride Match Day.
“Visibility matters,” said Outright International Executive Director Maria Sjödin. “Pride is now being celebrated in more than 100 countries, including this weekend in Seattle. For many LGBTIQ people, seeing a Pride flag in public is a reminder that they are not alone, and that their rights and dignity are recognized.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino earlier this year told Die Weltwoche, a Swiss magazine, that “there will be no ‘Pride Match’ at the (FIFA) World Cup.”
“There will be a FIFA World Cup match in Seattle, and on the same day, events organized by external organizations will be taking place in the city,” said Infantino. “But that has nothing to do with the match itself.”
Peter Tatchell, a long-time LGBTQ activist from the U.K. who is director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, was among those who traveled to Seattle for Friday’s match. Tatchell accused FIFA of not vetting World Cup teams — specifically Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Senegal, Qatar, Tunisia, Morocco, Iraq, Uzbekistan, and Algeria — over whether they would allow gay players.
“FIFA is protecting LGBT+ visibility in the stands while failing to protect LGBT+ players on the pitch,” said Tatchell.
South Africa
White House to end PEPFAR funding for South Africa
State Department says country failed to respond to 2025 executive order demands
The Trump-Vance administration will end PEPFAR funding for South Africa.
A State Department spokesperson on Wednesday told the Washington Blade the State Department “will begin a phased drawdown of PEPFAR programming in South Africa, with most programs ending by Sept. 30, 2026, and critical personnel support continuing through March 31, 2027.”
Semafor last week reported South Africa has received more than $8 billion in PEPFAR funding since President George W. Bush created the program to combat the global HIV/AIDS pandemic in 2003.
President Donald Trump on Feb. 7, 2025, issued an executive order that addressed what it described as “egregious actions of the Republic of South Africa.” The State Department spokesperson with whom the Blade spoke noted the directive included five specific requests:
• South African government provides exemptions or alternatives for U.S. companies to Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment laws and other race-based mandates.
• Senior government officials (e.g., president, deputy president, or minister of justice) unequivocally condemn all race-based incitement to violence, including the “Kill the Boer” song, more frequently.
• The South African government prevents the implementation of measures that would allow expropriation without fair compensation and due process under the Expropriation Act of 2024.
• South African Police Service designates rural crime a “priority crime” and increases resources dedicated to high-crime rural areas.
• South Africa refrains from actions that would significantly interfere with the implementation of the refugee program, within the confines of South African law.
“The United States communicated to the government of the Republic of South Africa multiple times at many levels that PEPFAR funding was likely to be terminated in the absence of progress on the five asks,” said the State Department spokesperson.
The State Department spokesperson further noted South Africa is “one of the largest economies in sub-Saharan Africa” and “has funded the vast majority of its own HIV response, estimated at 76 percent of the total, including procurement of all treatment commodities.”
“South Africa will continue to be supported by the Global Fund, including for the introduction and scale up of lenacapavir through Global Fund Resources,” the spokesperson told the Blade.
Lenacapavir is groundbreaking HIV prevention drug that users inject twice a year. Eswatini, which borders South Africa, is among the African countries that have received doses of the drug through PEPFAR.
HIV/AIDS service organizations in the U.S. and around the world have sharply criticized the Trump-Vance administration over plans to not fully fund PEPFAR and to cut domestic HIV/AIDS funding.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio shortly after the current White House took office issued a waiver that allowed PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during a freeze on nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending. HIV/AIDS service providers around the world with whom the Blade has spoken say PEPFAR cuts and the loss of funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which officially closed on July 1, 2025, has severely impacted their work.
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