Kenya's Compliance with the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: LGBTIQ+ Right

Date: January 13, 2026
Country: Kenya
Partners: The Eagles for Life Kenya
Issues: LGBTIQ+ Rights
Mechanism: UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Report Type: Shadow/Parallel Report

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The criminalization of private consensual same-sex sexual activity between adults and stigmatization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, and other sexual and gender minority (LGBTIQ+) individuals contributes to violations of their rights to work, just and favorable conditions of work, protection of the family and children, adequate standard of living, physical and mental health, and education. Kenya lacks laws that permit transgender people to legally change their gender. Transgender individuals who engage in sexual activity with cisgender people of a different gender (e.g., transgender men who have sex with cisgender women and transgender women who have sex with cisgender men) may fall victim to the law criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual activity between adults. In this report we use the acronym LGBTIQ+ to refer to individuals who self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and/or queer. These terms necessarily do not include everyone who may experience violations of their human rights on the basis of their real or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and/or sex characteristics ("SOGIESC"), which is why we also include a "+" with the acronym. Any use of a modified acronym is intentional in that we are speaking only about certain members of the LGBTIQ+ population. Information in this report includes first-hand information from LGBTIQ+ Kenyans, both in Kenya and those that have sought asylum abroad, has been used in this submission with their permission.