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Kenya's LGBTQ Refugees Face Threats, Attacks at Kakuma Camp

April Zhu

   NAIROBI - LGBTQ refugees in Kenya's Kakuma refugee camp say they are
   subjected to violent attacks and destruction of property by other
   refugees and local Turkana people.'¯Some have fled to Nairobi and
   accuse authorities of failing to prevent the attacks.

   In a June video shared with a reporter, a crowd of people surround a
   group of LGBTQ refugees in Kenya's Kakuma Refugee Camp and thrash them
   with stones and sticks.

   Photos of bloodied LGBTQ refugees circulated on social media.

   Transgender Ugandan refugee Doreen Andrews Kigongo was in the camp that
   day and confirmed the authenticity of the video.

   Kigongo was among a group of LGBTQ refugees who were transferred to
   Kakuma in late 2019, after her Nairobi safe house was raided by police.

   "I'm coming there in December, and other people told me, 'Oh my god,
   you are going to die here," she said. "First of all, you're trans. And
   you want to live that life, where you're expressing as a trans
   person?'"

   Another transgender Ugandan refugee, Anita Sebuuma, was among those
   attacked in the video and says that police were called but took hours
   to arrive.

   At a safe house in Nairobi, Sebuuma shows a reporter a long belly gash
   and scalp and forehead scars.

   Sebuuma saidthe wounds are from previous attacks by other refugees and
   locals who don't want them in the camp.

   Sebuuma saidafter a while, people got to know the house where they
   lived and started coming both day and night, throwing stones and
   threatening to kill them.

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