"In April 2023, Eric Anyango and his friend Joe Ochieng suffered hours of violence and verbal abuse after they traveled to the house of a man they met on Facebook. Soon after they arrived, three other men crashed through the door. The young men in their 20's were stripped, kicked, slapped, and beaten, called homophobic slurs, and blackmailed into getting friends and family to send their kidnappers hundreds of dollars through bank transfers."
"I tried to resist, and I wanted to fight back. That's when one of them took a knife, held it at me and said: 'If you don't cooperate now, I will stab you and throw you out the window.' After funds arrived in the blackmailers' accounts, the men were released."
"This case encourages us. A judge handed down sentences of 15 years in prison for robbery with violence at Milimani law courts in Nairobi on March 3, a rare instance of justice meted out for crimes against LGBTQ+ people in the East African country."
In March 2024, a Nairobi judge sentenced two men to 15 years in prison for robbery with violence against a gay couple. In April 2023, Eric Anyango and Joe Ochieng were lured to a house where attackers subjected them to hours of violence, verbal abuse, and blackmail. The perpetrators stripped, beat, and threatened the victims with death and outing to their families unless they obtained money through bank transfers. After securing funds, the attackers released them. With support from human rights organization Ishtar, the victims reported the crime to police. The conviction represents a significant but rare victory for LGBTQ+ justice in Kenya, where such crimes typically go unpunished and victims face discrimination from law enforcement.
Read at LGBTQ Nation
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