In September 2023, the Kenyan Supreme Court upheld its February 2023 decision which found that denying the registration of the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) was unconstitutional. The challenge was brought by Member of Parliament George Peter Kaluma in March 2023.
In their decision, the Supreme Court of Kenya found that Mr. Kaluma had failed to demonstrate that the February ruling on NGLHRC’s registration had been obtained by fraud or deceit or that the court was misled into giving its judgment. In its dismissal of the motion, the Supreme Court stated, ‘In our view, the application is a disguised appeal from this Court’s judgment and does not fall within the confines of the parameters prescribed for review by statute and applicable case law.’
In 2013, Eric Gitari, the former Executive Director of NGLHRC, challenged the Kenya NGO Coordination Board’s refusal to permit him to apply for registration of an NGO under a name containing the words ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’. The judges ruled in his favour at the High Court in 2015 and again at the Court of Appeal in 2019. In all three levels of the Courts, the binding decisions found that the refusal, which was on the purported basis that homosexuality is criminalised in the east African country, was unconstitutional, and directly in violation of the guarantee of freedom of association, irrespective of sexual orientation.
Read the judgment
