KENYA HIGH COURT RULES AGAINST SAME SEX MARRIAGE_Ada Nkong

Gender activists have described
the Kenyan High Court ruling
on Friday
banning same-sex relations
as “a blow to human rights.”
“We are satisfied that the provisions (in the constitution) do not offend (homosexuals’) rights to dignity and privacy,” said judge Roselyne Aburili in the capital Nairobi.
“We find that the sections are not unconstitutional,” Aburili added.
There was no conclusive scientific proof that homosexuals “were born that way” and therefore needed special consideration within the constitution, Aburili explained the ruling.
Decriminalising gay sex would “open a door to same sex unions, which would go directly against the spirit of Article 45 of the constitution on marriage,” the justice further said.
Judge John Mativo meanwhile said the petitioners had failed to provide credible evidence to demonstrate that the law discriminates against homosexuals.

Mativo said t
he ban was constitutional because it specifies that “any person”
is punishable under the law and does not single out homosexuals.
T
hree Kenyan gay rights organisations had
filed petitions to declare sections of the penal code, which stem from the 1930s and make gay sex a crime, unconstitutional.