Kenyan Man Gets 30 Years for Lesbian’s Murder. Activists Aren’t Happy.
Activists say the sentence for confessed killer of Sheila Lumumba is too lenient and sends a negative message about the value of LGBTQ lives.
A Kenyan man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murder of nonbinary lesbian Sheila Adhiambo Lumumba.
Lumumba, who was 25 at the time of their death, was found murdered and naked in their bedroom in Karatina, north of the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, on April 17, 2022. According to Human Rights Watch, Lumumba had been sexually assaulted, hit on the head with a blunt object, and stabbed in the chest, face, neck, and eyes.
From the start of the investigation into Lumumba’s murder, their family was critical of police response, accusing investigators of dragging their feet due to anti-LGBTQ animus.
Lumumba’s cousin, Brenda Akinyi, told Human Rights Watch that the family began investigating the murder themselves after police failed to update the family on case developments. Additionally, after police claimed to have searched the crime scene, family members found a knife and razor blade in Lumumba’s bedroom. A family friend found CCTV footage of Lumumba leaving a bar with three men on the last night they were seen alive.
Following criticism of the investigation, lesbian, bisexual, and queer activists started a campaign for justice, circulating a photo of Lumumba and sharing the hashtag #JusticeForSheila on social media. By the start of Lesbian Visibility Week, which ran from April 25 to May 1, #JusticeForSheila was trending in Kenya.
LGBTQ activists criticized Kenya’s laws criminalizing consensual same-sex relations with up to 14 years in jail, and overall hostile attitudes towards homosexuality, for hampering the investigation into Lumumba’s murder, specifically, and efforts to combat anti-LGBTQ violence, more broadly.
They called on police to conduct a more transparent investigation into the murder, asking for those responsible to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Activists urged national lawmakers to repeal Kennya’s colonial-era anti-LGBTQ laws, two of which were upheld by the country’s highest court as recently as 2019. They also urged lawmakers to amend laws and policies against gender-based violence to protect LGBTQ people specifically and to declare murder as a form of gender-based violence.
In July, Billington Wambui Mwathi, who was identified as one of the men recorded on CCTV accompanying Lumumba as they left a bar in April, was arrested and arraigned in Nyeri High Court, in Karatina, on charges of aggravated assault and murder.
According to Open Democracy, a woman was arrested by police after allegedly being found selling items that had belonged to Lumumba, but was never charged.
Mwathi eventually pleaded guilty to Lumumba’s murder. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison on December 22.
Some activists called the sentence handed down by the Nyeri High Court as too lenient, noting that even Lumumba’s family had asked for a prison sentence of at least 50 years in jail, reports the website Erasing 76 Crimes, which reports on anti-LGBTQ laws and decriminalization efforts worldwide.
In a joint statement, the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Galck+ (formerly known as the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya), and the Initiative for Equality and Non Discrimination (INEND), criticized the sentence and called for Kenya to adopt laws that value and protect every individual, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
“We express profound disappointment as the sentence falls tragically short of the justice Sheila deserves and the severity of crimes committed,” the groups said in a statement. “Sheila Lumumba’s murder on April 17, 2022, represented not only a heinous act of violence against an individual, but also an attack on the dignity and safety of the LGBTIQ+ community. The leniency of this sentence sends a disconcerting message regarding the value placed on the lives of LGBTIQ+ individuals in our society.”
Even though the Kenyan Supreme Court upheld a decision allowing LGBTQ organizations to register as recognized human rights organizations based on the principle of freedom of association, several LGBTQ organizations and individual activists have been attacked, harassed, or persecuted due to animus.
In October, several religious and civic leaders organized a rally of hundreds of people, who marched on the capital of Nairobi to protest the existence of the LGBTQ community, and call for a Uganda-style law imposing harsher penalties for same-sex relations.
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