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amin shamji: kenya's george michael |
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Last Updated: May 18, 2000 |
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May 18, 199?: Despite Kenya's rather harsh Victorian laws against homosexuality, very rarely do the country's gays and lesbians make the news. Homosexuality is a taboo subject in Kenya. So when on 18th May, one of Kenya's four daily newspapers, the `Kenya Times', carried as it's page-one splash, a story headlined "SODOMY: `NATION' TV CHIEF NABBED", members of the gay community were immediately alert, not knowing what to expect next.
The news story reported that freelance television producer Amin Shamji, had been arrested "red-handed sodomising a man of Somali origin". The two had been caught by a police patrol in the act of fellatio, at dawn the day before, while in a car that had been parked in a street outside a top tourist hotel in central Nairobi. Interestingly, they were not charged under the main criminal anti-gay law, contained in the penal code, which might have seen Amin and his co-accused, Abdi Nasir Sheikh, sent down for a maximum 14 years. Instead they were charged with "acting contrary to public decency under City Council by-law 28(1) of the City of Nairobi general nuisance by-law of 1961." This saw the magistrate sentence Shamji and Sheikh to six months in jail each.
The two were probably charged under this obscure by-law, because proving that a homosexual act has taken place using the penal code, as it stands, is almost impossible in practice. This is because you would literally have to have a policeman, or the judge, record anal penetration on film. The burden of proof is on the arresting authority and therefore in the last 30 years or more, few have been convicted on the charged of sodomy.
Shamji, has since challenged the conviction and is now out of jail on a 5,000 Kenya shillings cash bond. He claims in his challenge that there were glaring anomalies in the way he was sentenced. He says he was not given a chance to consult with a lawyer during his first trial and had been misled by the police that he would be charged with "alight offence, and I would be fined a nominal sum of 1,000 shillings to avoid a lengthy, embarrassing trial".
The story made the front page of the `Kenya Times' twice in a row, partly because the paper was trying to boost flagging sales with a salacious, tabloid type story and partly because the `Kenya Times' has been at loggerheads with the Nation Media Group which produces the `Daily Nation' Kenya's leading daily newspaper and also owns Nation TV.
The `Kenya Times' had been hoping to embarrass their rivals and were merely using the story as a stick with which to beat the Nation Media Group. In fact, Shamji is a freelance TV producer but has never worked for Nation TV.
For a whole variety of reasons, including the law, cultural and social taboos and a strong religious influence, many Kenyan homosexuals tend to be closeted. The few that are out form the 'scene'. There are, however, no gay clubs or venues and if a couple cannot for any reason go to a private house or flat, and cannot afford [or don't have the guts] to hire a hotel room, they end up having to have sex where they can, putting themselves at risk of being caught out.
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