On Friday last week, the Supreme Court ruled that the NGO coordination Board violated Eric Gitari's right to freedom of association by refusing to register his NGO based on his sexual orientation
The court said the NGOs Coordination Board’s refusal to register the lobby group would violate their human rights based on their sexual orientation
According to section 162 of the penal code on unnatural offences, “any person who has carnal knowledge of any persons against the order of nature or permits a male person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature is guilty of a felony and liable to 14 years”
However, it states that if the offence was committed without the consent of the person who was carnally known or was committed with that person’s consent but the consent was obtained by force or using threats or intimidation of some kind, or by fear of bodily harm, or using false representations as to the nature of the act then the person shall be sentenced to 21 years.
Section 163 states that “an attempt to commit unnatural offences Any person who attempts to commit any of the offences specified in section 162 is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for seven years,”
In 2019, the High Court declined to repeal section 162 of the penal code which criminalizes sexual acts between persons of the same gender.
A three-judge bench dismissed their arguments which stated that the penal code was not vague as had been alleged and it does indeed disclose an offence.
The LGBTQ lobby groups appealed the decision and it’s still pending before the court for determination on whether the section will be repealed.
