Human Rights Watch East Africa Director Otsieno Namwaya has said that it cannot be denied that LGBTQ persons face hostility in the country.
Namwaya was responding to the recent murder of LGBTQ activist and Fashionista Edwin Chiloba last week.
While speaking at the launch of Human Rights Watch’s report on the human rights trends of 2022 across Africa, he said that it is clear to see.
He said that last year, a similar gruesome murder of a young woman who identified as LGBTQ also occurred.
Sheila Lumumba was found dead, strangled and stabbed at her Karatina home in Nyeri county.
“We cannot deny that there is hostility against LGBTQ persons and they need government protection,” he said.
He said the case remains so, even though the reality of the matter has turned out to be different.
“What happened to him was a crime,” he said referring to the main suspect of the murder confessing to killing him.
Namwaya said that if more cases like these continue to happen, it will cease to be a criminal matter and become a human rights issue.
