A draft bill seeking to have gay individuals publicly stoned to death in Kenya has been presented before the National Assembly through a petition by the Republican Liberty Party. If passed by Parliament, foreigners who commit homosexual acts will be stoned to death in public, while Kenyan nationals found guilty of sodomy will be jailed for life. All forms of sexual relations between people of the same sex will also be prohibited.
"There is need to protect children and youth who are vulnerable to sexual abuse and deviation as a result of cultural changes, uncensored information technology, parentless-child developmental settings and increasing attempts by homosexuals to raise children in homosexual relationships through adoption, foster care or otherwise," the party’s legal secretary, Edward Onwong’a Nyakeriga said in the petition.
Last week, Speaker Justin Muturi forwarded the Anti-Homosexuality Bill to the Justice and Legal Affairs committee, which will consider it and report back to the House.
The bill also introduces "Aggravated homosexuality", which includes committing such acts with a minor or where the offender is HIV-positive. This, the Bill proposes, should be punished by stoning to death in public.
Parliament already has a caucus against the gay lifestyle and in February MPs announced that they will seek measures to deal with the social ill.
"The petition aims at providing comprehensive and enhanced legislation to protect the cherished culture of the people of Kenya, legal, religious and traditional family values against the attempts of sexual rights activists seeking to impose their values of sexual promiscuity on the people of Kenya," the petition reads.
The Kenyan gay and lesbian community has in the past demanded that Parliament repeals all anti-homosexuality laws, which they claim infringe on their fundamental rights.
Religious leaders, legislators and many other leaders have nonetheless opposed attempts to legalise homosexuality and lesbianism in the country with clerics calling the practice an "unnatural crime" that must not be allowed in the country.
While the constitution outlaws the union of persons of the same sex, it does not explicitly make homosexuality a crime.
In July, a poll by Ipsos Synovate found that 64 per cent of Kenyans believe homosexuality is an unnatural act and is learned in the process of growing-up.
According to the study, only 14 per cent of Kenyans surveyed in the poll believe that being gay is natural and some people are indeed born this way.
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