Photo courtesy of the BBC

The introduction by Homabay Town MP Peter Kaluma of a Bill that would prohibit same sex acts and unions, with individuals who engage in homosexual acts risking capital punished in some instances, has caused an international furor.

The draft Family Protection Bill, 2023, seeks to prohibit ‘aggravated’ same sex acts. Aggravated same sex acts defined in the Bill, include sex with a child, or is disabled, or suffers disability as a result of a sex act. Similarly, sex with a person with mental, or who suffers mental illness as result of a sex act will be prohibited.

Life imprisonment for sex changes

The Bill also proposes life imprisonment for anyone who changes his or her sex, undergoes medical procedures that are intended to change is or her sex, or takes prescriptions to change their sex.

Clause 32” (1) of the draft Bill reads: “A person who engages in sexual acts with a person of the same sex commits an offence and shall upon conviction be sentenced to death.”
Those who engage in ‘unnatural acts’ could serve between 10 and 20 years in prison.

Kaluma told the media that his man objective in proposing the Bill is the protection of the family in line with Article 45 of the Constitution.

Prohibited acts

Prohibited acts that are defined in the Bill include the grooming of children and the promotion of prohibited activities to a child, and gross indecency.

The Bill will also make it mandatory for personal pronouns to be Mr, Mrs, Miss, male and female.

Drag shows and “obscene adult live performances” will also be banned.

Gay marriages to be banned

Nor will “gay marriage” be allowed, even if entered into in a country other than Kenya.

The Bill reads: “A certificate issued by a foreign authority of a purported marriage, civil union, domestic partnership or other form of union between persons or sexual partners of the same sex is unenforceable in Kenya.”

The introduction of the Family Protection Bill in Kenya comes a month after Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni signed one of the world’s toughest anti-LGBTQ laws, including the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”, a move which led to widespread Western condemnation and the threat of sanctions from aid donors.

Same-sex relations are illegal in more than 30 African countries.