Kenyan Supreme Court orders MP to pay LGBTQ+ activist £3,000
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The Kenyan Supreme Court has mandated opposition MP Peter Kaluma to pay an LGBTQ+ activist approximately £3,000 (KSh500,000) for contesting its decision that permitted his former organisation to register as a non-governmental organisation.
On Monday, the Supreme Court directed Kaluma, the sponsor of the country’s anti-homosexuality bill, to compensate former National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission Executive Director Eric Gitari after dismissing Kaluma’s appeal of its ruling from September.
Gitari had defended the case, having led the effort for NGLHRC’s registration as an NGO against government opposition due to its advocacy for consensual same-sex relations, which are illegal in Kenya.
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In a virtual hearing headed by Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu, five of the court’s seven justices ordered Kaluma to pay Gitari £3,000 for the time wasted and costs incurred in the appeal, plus an additional £1,100 (Ksh200,000) for bringing the case, according to ‘Washington Blade’.
Following Kaluma’s attempt in January to dispute the Deputy Registrar’s decision on the appeal’s costs and the order to pay Gitari, the judges issued their ruling.
Kaluma argued that he was not served notice of the ruling and only learned about it when Gitari’s lawyer contacted him for the £3,000 payment.
He further claimed that the lawyer informed him the seven-day timeline to contest the payment had already expired on Nov. 14, 2023. Thus, Kaluma sought additional time from the Supreme Court to challenge the Deputy Registrar’s decision.
The Supreme Court, however, rejected Kaluma’s plea, determining that he was not truthful based on legal filings that showed he was served the ruling through his official email on Nov. 6, 2023.
Deputy Chief Justice Mwilu noted, “We observe that there have been numerous correspondences from the court through its email address to MP Kaluma and vice versa. Notably, there was correspondence on Sept. 12, 2023, and Nov. 6, 2023, to the MP via his email address.”
The judges affirmed that there was no indication Kaluma’s email had changed since March 9, 2023, when the first ruling on the NGLHRC registration case was sent to him.
“There is no doubt in our minds that the email address in question belongs to the applicant. We therefore conclude that Kaluma was indeed aware and was served with the impugned ruling,” Mwilu stated.
The court also noted Kaluma failed to provide a sufficient reason for not challenging the Deputy Registrar’s decision within the statutory timelines.
“Additionally, the applicant has not satisfied any of the conditions to persuade this court to exercise its discretion in his favor,” Mwilu ruled.
Mwilu’s affirmation on behalf of the court to reject Kaluma’s attempt to delay paying Gitari concluded the matter, requiring Kaluma to comply with the order immediately or face further legal action.
Kaluma, who was not involved in the Supreme Court’s hearings of the NGLHRC case, lost his appeal on Sept. 12. The judges cited his late application and his lack of involvement in the initial hearings.
“In our view, the application is a disguised appeal from this court’s judgment and does not fall within the statutory and case law parameters for review. Therefore, the application is dismissed,” the court ruled. “Regarding costs, the applicant, being an advocate of the High Court of Kenya and a member of parliament, should have known his application was misconceived. Consequently, he must bear the costs.”
The judges, in allowing NGLHRC to register as an NGO, stated that it would be unconstitutional to deny registration based on the applicants’ sexual orientation, as it would limit the right to association.
The Supreme Court’s decision, which LGBTQ+ activists celebrated while anti-LGBTQ+ campaigners, clerics, and politicians criticised, came a decade after Gitari’s 2013 challenge to the Kenya NGOs Coordination Board’s refusal to register NGLHRC in the lower courts.
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Kenya Rights Org Sues Over Anti-LGBTQ+ Protests
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