Kenya: Gay political candidate warned of ‘revolt’ if elected

A Kenyan anti-poverty campaigner has become the country’s first openly gay man to run for political office.

However, David Kuria Mbote faces a difficult path as he tries to dispel taboos in the largely conservative Christian nation in a race for a senate seat.

If elected to the senate, the 40-year-old would become Africa’s first openly gay black man to hold national office, according to the Kaleidoscope Trust, a global LGBT rights group that’s based in London.

Kenyan Trade Minister Moses Wetangula has warned there would be a “revolt” if voters elected Mr Mbote, telling the BBC that homosexuality “simply doesn’t fly” in Kenya.

He went on to say that gay people should not “have an opportunity or privilege to lead a country that is founded on religious morality”.

In May of this year, Kenya’s National Human Rights Commission published a report calling for the decriminalisation of homosexuality and prostitution in the east African state.

Homosexual offences in Kenya currently carry penalties of between five and 14 years’ imprisonment.