•In the case, LGBTQ activist Eric Gitari had challenged the refusal by the NGO Coordination Board to register their association
The Association of Pentecostal and Evangelical Clergy of Kenya has written to the National Assembly to initiate a bill that institutes harsher penalties for those practising unnatural practices.
This comes as the debate on the Supreme Court ruling allowing the registration of the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission as an NGO.
In their letter to the National Assembly Clerk, the APECK Executive Committee further wants a Bill that bars registration of organisations that promote or practice LGBTQ and reviews the penal code to make criminal provisions for other unnatural practices not captured in the penal code like lesbianism, transgender and queer practices.
“The judgment by a simple majority was ruled purely on the freedom of association on the account of sexual orientation but grossly failed to account for the spirit of the said association,” the joint statement reads.
According to APECK, Article 45 of the Kenya constitution 2010 defines marriage as between people of the opposite sex and identifies a family as a natural fundamental unit of society and the necessary basis of social order.
Similarly, Sections 162, 163, and 165 of the penal code criminalize homosexuality and same-sex inclinations.
The association said Section 162 criminalizes carnal knowledge against the order of nature with a penalty of 14 years imprisonment. It further noted, Section 163 prohibits attempts to commit unnatural offences with seven years of imprisonment.
“It is clear and this is our shared position that any sexual practices between persons of the same sex amount to gross indecency and are illegal in Kenya,” it reads.
The Supreme Court on Friday gave the green light for the registration of LGBTQ society.
In the case, LGBTQ activist Eric Gitari challenged the refusal by the NGO Coordination Board to register their association.
In the judgment delivered on Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that the NGO Coordination Board violated Gitari's right to freedom of association by refusing to register his NGO on the basis of his sexual orientation.
The judges ruled that the decision by the board was discriminatory.