These LGBT refugees came to Kenya seeking freedom. Now they’ve been imprisoned and abused.
A collection of artwork made by Ugandan LGBT refugees at a safe house on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. By Max Bearak Max Bearak Africa bureau chief based in Nairobi Email Bio Follow March 19 at 6:05 AM NAIROBI — On Feb.
The refugees were arrested en masse near the headquarters of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in an upscale neighborhood of the Kenyan capital. Police say they were creating a public nuisance, trespassing and even defecating in public. In interviews with five of the refugees during visiting hours at Nairobi West prison, they said that the charges are trumped up and that they have suffered horrible physical abuse at the hands of prison guards and other prisoners.
Benon and others said that all 20 were carrying identification from UNHCR. Edgar Atuhe, 24, who, like Benon, is Ugandan, said that UNHCR or affiliated organizations had not yet come to check on them in the prison, though a UNHCR spokeswoman said that they had been in contact with the detainees “directly and indirectly” and that a lawyer had been provided for them from a partner organization.
Prison guards let The Post speak with only five of the 19 detainees at Nairobi West , saying that “you will get from these five what you would get from the rest.” In neighboring Tanzania, many LGBT people have gone into hiding after authorities in the capital, Dar es Salaam, called on residents to “help identify homosexuals” so they could be arrested. Uganda, which also borders Kenya, drew international condemnation in 2014 for passing a law that carried a life sentence for “aggravated homosexuality.
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