S4 E7: The Kenya Supreme Court recognising the right of the LGBTIQ+ community to register organisations in Kenya

In conversation with Lizzy Muthoni Kibira and Chanel van der Linde

On 24 February 2023, the Kenyan Supreme Court ruled that the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) must be allowed to officially register as a non-governmental organisation (NGO). The Supreme court held that it would be unconstitutional to limit the right to associate through denial of registration. This ruling ends a decade-long legal case. In this episode, Africa Rights Talk in conversation with Lizzy Muthoni Kibira and Chanel van der Linde discuss this triumph for justice and human rights in Kenya and the future of LGBTI Rights in Africa.

Lizzy Muthoni Kibira is a Kenyan lawyer and researcher based in Nakuru, Kenya. She previously worked with Strathmore University School of Law and Kabarak University School of Law. Ms. Kibira holds an LLB from Strathmore University, Kenya. Her academic interests include public life of law, history and politics; and the function of international organisations.  She published an article in the Strathmore Law Journal, titled, A Representative of the People, A review of Dominic Burbidge’s An Experiment in Devolution: National Unity and the Deconstruction of the Kenyan State. Her current project focuses on the public life of the commonwealth organisation. Link to her publication: https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/strathlj5&div=12&id=&page=  

 

Chanel van der Linde is a project officer at the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression, and Sexual Characteristic (SOGIESC) Unit, at the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria. She holds an LLB from the University of Witwatersrand and an LLM in Multidisciplinary Human Rights from the University of Pretoria.

 

This conversation was recorded on 16 and 17 March 2023.

 

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