Mtwapa residents protest
On the Friday Imams and Muftis called at Friday prayers for people to "demonstrate and to flush out homosexuals from the midst of Mtwapa and to ensure that no gay wedding took place" according to human rights activists. A spokesman for Kenyan gay group GAAI told the gayswithoutborders international network that:
A mob showed up outside the KEMRI building to demonstrate against the gay wedding and gay people in general. They pulled I believe 2 people out of the building and beat them badly. The police intervened and arrested the two ( actually possibly saved their lives from the mob). The police later went to the center and arrested I believe 3 others. So we have five arrested gay men at Mtwapa police station. The mob moved with the police to the station which is where they still are.
The KEMRI building includes a clinic where gay men were initially believed to be holding a meeting as part of a HIV Vaccine research project. Police and the mob leader, arrested one staff member pointed out as 'gay' by the mob leader because he was wearing a teeshirt promoting condom use, 'Komesha Ukimwi tumia condom', which included a pink triangle (the symbol work by gays in Nazi death camps). However the BBC reported District police officer George Matandura saying there were two men arrested and had been found with wedding rings, attempting to get married. Police and the mob returned later and arrested another staff member.
PeaceMaker (PEMA) and Stay Alive say:
A number of religious and political leaders took the opportunity to speak to the crowd. Sheikh Ali Hussein's speech was inciting and he kept talking about Sodom and Gomorrah and the need to root all homosexuals from the Mtwapa area.
Omar Masumbuko, the former MP of the area told the crowd to not bother taking gay men to the police but that they should 'take care of the issue themselves'.
Another report said that two men suspected of being a couple by residents were "flushed out" of their ransacked apartment within the town and police found wedding rings on their fingers. Activists say the police participated in the raid and were directed by the mob leader.
PeaceMaker (PEMA) and Stay Alive say:
While all this was going on Omondi (not real name) a 23 year old security guard was alighting from a matatu heading towards the center when he saw a mob walking towards him. A woman on the street told him not to go that way and two young men walking by him told him he was going to die that day.
Not knowing what was going on he immediately tried to run away but unfortunately it was too late and the mob caught up to him and beat him senseless. A female sex worker tried to protect him with her body and yelling at the crowd that they can't just kill people like that and that he hadn't done anything. The police arrived just in time to save his life since the mob had already dosed Omondi with kerosene and were about to burn him alive.
Omondi was arrested and taken to Mtwapa police station bloody, dazed, and unsure what had just happened to him. The police didnot offer any medical assistance and he was thrown into the cell.
The Daily Nation said that police saved three men suspected of being "notorious gays" from "hundreds of angry youth baying for their blood" and shouting "they should be burned". The Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya claimed that the Mombasa area is "drowning in drugs" and a large number of "drug addicted youths" accompanied the police.
GAAI reports that:
The police told [our source] that they had arrested the guys to diffuse the situation since it was getting out of hand.
The police asked the Imams to calm the youth and they agreed. The Imams were happy that the police had started arresting homosexuals and wanted them to arrest more from the clinic.
Our credible source say the men have so far been transferred from Mtwapa, a police station where they were arrested and taken, to Mombasa city, the Coastal police provincial headquarter for medical examination.
Reports say that the state has taken the steps when it emerged that they may have nothing to charge the five men in court because those who were arrested had not committed any crime against the state. They had just gathered for a group meeting .
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