Fearing imprisonment and abuse in their homeland, some queer Ugandans have fled to neighboring Kenya where they hope to live in safety. It's been a year since Uganda enacted one of the world's harshest anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
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00:00 Sula Mweje is a Ugandan who's been living in Kenya since 2016.
00:06 He was forced to leave his home because he's queer.
00:10 Life in Kampala proved unbearable for him after the country's parliament passed a law
00:14 that increased the penalties for some forms of consensual same-sex acts.
00:20 Even his family turned on him.
00:23 I was brutally beaten by my uncle, mobilising people, saying I'm a disgrace.
00:32 I remember I woke up on a hospital bed and from there I was like, Uganda is not home
00:41 and it's not safe.
00:43 Since relocating to Kenya, Sula has made a life for himself here.
00:47 He works with an organisation that helps create safe spaces for other displaced LGBTQ persons
00:52 in the country.
00:53 Currently, nine people, most of them from Uganda, live in the safe house with him.
00:58 Sula tells me Kenya is their only home now, a reality that's still difficult to accept
01:04 even after eight years.
01:05 No, Uganda is not home.
01:09 And it really pains me that something like somewhere where I am from, I don't regard
01:18 it as home anymore.
01:19 I mean, with grace, I hope people at home get to, I mean, everyone gets to feel safe
01:30 at home.
01:36 Despite feeling more comfortable here, Sula and his friends still have to fear for their
01:40 lives.
01:41 Since he's been in Kenya, Sula has actually had to move houses four times, fearing violence
01:47 and harassment.
01:48 He actually tells me that this week he was attacked on a motorcycle taxi just for being
01:53 queer.
01:54 Now, Kenya, like Uganda, also criminalises homosexuality, but Sula says he feels much
02:00 safer here.
02:02 I would be conscious of using the word safe.
02:05 Poe Kimani is a lawyer working with the queer community.
02:09 If you feel that your life is at risk, you run to where you think you're safe, but there
02:14 is no conviction or guarantee of safety.
02:17 The minute you step on Kenyan soil, you're still governed by the law, the sodomy clause
02:22 in our penal code.
02:24 You're still governed by the same policemen and the same communities that harbour and
02:29 internalise fear and hatred for homosexuals.
02:32 At the safe house, Champagne, the latest arrival, agrees to speak to us.
02:37 The transgender woman finally made it to Kenya through support from a donor.
02:41 She tells me a lot of her queer friends are still experiencing abuse in Uganda, abuse
02:45 similar to what she suffered at the hands of her family.
02:48 Even my mother told me, "If they arrest you, you're going directly to prison.
02:53 You're going to die.
02:55 They're going to kill you from there."
02:57 Even my biological brother, "If you get sick, just request for an injection which just kills
03:03 you, just take you to burial just like that."
03:06 Eventually, Champagne hopes to move to a country that does not criminalise sexuality or sexual
03:12 orientation.
03:13 For now, though, she remains under the care of Sula, who says he is committed to working
03:18 in Kenya for the displaced in his community.
03:20 In the safe house, he shows me a gallery of queer people from all over the world, a reminder
03:26 that they are not alone.
03:28 and country.