The Gay Debate: No straight answers in Kenya

by Jossi Tinga

I was a teenager strolling in town with Dad when he did something unusual. He tapped my shoulder rapidly, lowered his head to my ear-level and whispered urgently.

“Mwangalie vizuri huyo nitakaye msalimia” ( Take a good look at the person I will greet.)

I scanned the on-coming human traffic on Mombasa’s Digo Road. It was the usual crowd; men in sandals and un- tucked shirts, women in floral and multicoloured dresses and a good number of veiled ladies. Those days the veils in Mombasa were loose-fitting gowns open from the face down to the waist.

The veil covered the hair and back then flowed downwards as a loose-fitting skirt. The arms, bust and blouse were clearly visible. It was common for Muslim women to show off their makeup and jewellery.  The full face veil was rare. Mostly it was worn by aspiring brides shielding the bleached faces from the sun for the big day.  Just one lady wore a full face veil in the street that day. I notice the full-face veil is much more common these days. In fact, the old partially open veil has been replaced with a long-sleeved tunic.

As we approached the fully-veiled lady my dad reached out to her literally blocking my path. She was on my side of the pavement. She proffered a lame hand towards him in the most feminine of ways. 

“Fatuma hujambo” ( How are you Fatuma)

“Si-ja-mbo” ( I am fine) she replied haltingly as a shy girl would.

As Christians in the predominantly Muslim town, it struck me as odd that my dad should know this obviously conservative lady.  The conservative Muslim women rarely left home; not even to shop. There were wild rumours that some ventured out nights to lure men. It was famously claimed the veiled ladies of night were sometimes ghosts that lured randy men to cemeteries. Mombasa is a deeply superstitious town.

The veiled truth

We walked a few steps before Dad dropped the bombshell.

“That woman I just greeted is no woman- she is a man!”

I instinctively turned to take another look at her. She was swaying away as some women do. In the veil, I could not see her feet. There was nothing outward to betray her secret.

“Why is he dressed like a woman?” I asked.

“Yeye ni shoga” (He is a homosexual) he replied.

At play it was common for boys to call each other names. The worst you could do was to call someone ‘shoga’. That was an act of war. It led to instant fighting. Here was a fully grown man walking in the street dressed as a woman! I was transfixed! My dad rapped me on the shoulder again- this time to remind me with had my ‘back-to-school’ shopping to do. The year was 1984.

In thirty years, the gay debate has not moved from the veil of secrecy into public light. In 2012 a forum to promote safe sex among the gay community held in Likoni, Mombasa was disrupted by irate members of the public. It is something of a misnomer to refer to gays in Kenya as a community. They exist for sure but as an anonymous community. That is; if they are sufficiently networked to the level of a community. 

A few bold ones did try to sneak in their agenda into the debate on the new constitution in 2010. It is for this reason that the drafters of the constitution took the extraordinary step to stipulate that marriage is only permitted between two members of the opposite sex. Opponents of the draft constitution still went ahead to claim that the Bill of Rights allowed the practice of homosexuality.

Kenya is a homophobic country. However, many of those opposed to homosexuality believe it to be a foreign import driven by western hegemony. Of course they were not all with me on that street in 1984. They would have seen that there were no NATO forces accompanying the cross-dresser.

In recent times the media has highlighted cases of homosexual prostitutes at the coast lamenting harassment from the public. In one clip aired on TV, a gay prostitute tellingly accuses the public of harassment while lauding the police for protecting them. Homosexuality is illegal in Kenya but I cannot recall anyone jailed for engaging in consensual homosexual sex.

A couple from Old Town in Mombasa was once acquitted by a local court for lack of evidence. It is damn too difficult to prove the crime of homosexuality without breaching privacy laws. The offence of consensual homosexuality is one which only God can prosecute. Probably rightly so- homosexuality is a moral and not a criminal issue. As a matter of fact, sexual orientation is a deeply personal issue debatable only where it infringes on others.

I am no more for gay rights than I am for nudism. I am only for the practicable. It is highly impracticable to police laws against homosexuality just as it is to arrest persons who chose to prance around naked in the privacy of their homes or among those of like mind. Whereas public display of nudity is a crime and social vice in much of the country, in Turkana it is perfectly normal for males to expose themselves

.

Male nudity in those parts is not associated with sexuality but probably gender role. It is a cultural shock for many first time visitors to the region to watch an adult male bath in full view of women, children and everyone else for that matter. Incidentally, only the visitor will make untowardly glances. The rest hardly take notice.

Indecent exposure is also an offence but in these circumstances different standards apply- just as in communal baths. In much of rural Kenya it is acceptable for men- and sometimes women- to bath together in secluded and segregated parts of rivers. Yet nudist beaches are illegal in Kenya.

In France, there were shouting matches and marches for and against gay marriage. Polls indicate a slim majority is for allowing same-sex marriage. It all seems very far away from Kenya- but is it?  When the Principal of Kadzonzo Girls High School, in Kilifi County was faced with the scandal of girls kissing in boarding school, she expelled the twelve offenders.

The girls were accused of lesbianism, which is better tolerated but still taboo. The male version elicits revulsion and incites violent reaction as Africa Review reported on the public reaction to a Gays seminar in Mombasa.  The scandal of girls kissing in boarding school died out; forgotten. Unfortunately that does not solve the problem- if at all juvenile experimentation and exploration of their bodies is a problem.

Whereas same-sex liaisons may be repulsive to the majority, it should not be for the violent or the police to discourage and prosecute them. If, as some allege, it is moral decadence that is to blame for the vice it is incumbent upon the moral voice of society to blight it out. We should shine our moral torches where it thrives educating our youth on morally acceptable sexual behaviour.

Unfortunately, the sex education is also one subject we have fought to keep from our schools. Sex is taboo, only to be discussed in hashed tones preferably in the dark. It is not for nothing that my dad broke into a troubled chuckle when I insisted on finding out why a man should desire to be unlike other men.

“Ni malimwengu hayo” (These are worldly things) he quipped philosophically.

There may not be straight answers to all questions about human sexuality or the human condition for that matter. Kenya is no exception- it has no straight answers to what I know to be an old issue conveniently packaged as an emerging case.