Kenya: Men Arrested for Planning Gay Wedding Released

Five people arrested in Kenya last week for allegedly planning a same-sex wedding have been freed by police and told to flee their community to avoid trouble. Police said they didn’t have enough evidence to prosecute the case.

Two of the men who were arrested had wedding rings in their possession. According to news reports, police were tipped off to the potential nuptials by local tribal chiefs, who believed that two men were going to get married at a seaside hotel near Mombasa on the southern coast of Kenya.

Although it is illegal for LGBT couples to marry in Kenya, same-sex couples traditionally get together with friends and family to declare their vows. Gay sex is illegal in 36 countries in Africa. South Africa has legalized same-sex marriage, but it remains a hot-button issue there.

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Kenya: Government Arrests 5 Planning to Attend Gay Wedding After Public Tip

Kenya police on Friday arrested five suspected homosexuals in a coastal resort town after hundreds of residents protested over a planned gay wedding, a local official said. The five were among would-be guests at the wedding, which was meant to be secret. Residents learned about it and alerted the police, who raided a house and nabbed the men.

Homosexuality is illegal in Kenya and it was unclear who was to officiate at the marriage.

Local district official George Matundura said the couple who were to marry escaped from Mtwapa, a vibrant party town to the north of Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa, where the wedding reception was to be held. Matundura said the five -- aged between 20 and 35 -- will "undergo a medical examination before we charge them with homosexuality."

Full Story from AFP
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Kenya: Churches Threaten to Reject New Constitution Over "Gay Marriage Loophole"

Kenyan Evangelical Churches have once again threatened to reject the Harmonised Draft Constitution but this time on the premise that it failed to outlaw gay marriages and abortion. Kenya Christian Constitutional Forum Chairman (KCCF) Bishop Gerry Kibarabara said on Monday that by stating that every adult has a right to marry, the draft as presented leaves a loophole for the two vices. The leaders urged the Committee of Experts (CoE) on Constitution to clearly outlaw the two illegalities before presenting the draft for a vote. “We state categorically that life begins at conception and ends in natural death and the draft should be amended to include those specific words,” Bishop Kibarabara said after a meeting of the forum. “The marriage and family should be clearly defined as between persons of the opposite sex.” Full Story from Capital News: http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/Kenyanews/Kenyan-churches-in-new-threat-over-law-6741.html

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Kenya to Exclude Gay Rights from New Constitution

Gay rights will not be enshrined in the new Constitution. The Committee of Experts on Constitutional Review said at the weekend they had shrugged off pressure from some British MPs who wanted gay rights to be included in the draft Constitution they are preparing. Mr Otiende Amolo, a member of the committee said they turned down the British MPs’ request for homosexual rights, with fears that majority of Kenyans would reject the draft during the forthcoming referendum. “On several occasions some British MPs have approached us on the gay matter. They wanted us to include homosexual and lesbians’ rights in the draft. But we told them in their faces that such a thing cannot happen because if we did so majority of Kenyans will reject the draft during the forthcoming referendum,” he said. Full Story from The Daily Nation: http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/673726/-/uo11ef/-/

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To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook - just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you'll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We're also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.