Gay sex is punishable by at least 10 years in jail under the proposed Kenyan law, while “aggravated homosexuality”, which includes gay sex with a minor or disabled person or when a terminal disease is passed on, brings the death penalty.
Meanwhile, Tanzanian lawmaker Jacqueline Ngonyani said she planned to introduce a private motion in parliament later this year to clamp down on gay activity in an attempt to “control the ongoing moral decay”. President William Ruto, an evangelical Christian, has criticised a February supreme court decision allowing an LGBT rights group to register as a NGO. “We cannot travel the road of women marrying their fellow women and men marrying their fellow men,” he said at the time.
“Across the continent we want to have these laws,” Kaluma added. “If they were to sanction Uganda, let them sanction the entirety of Africa.” The US State Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the conference or the East African legislative moves.The Kenyan bill would toughen up a colonial-era statute under which gay sex was already illegal, though the older, less detailed law was rarely enforced.