Kenya: Court orders government agency to register gay rights organization
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FILE - In this Monday, Feb. 10, 2014 file photo, Kenyan gays and lesbians and others supporting their cause wear masks to preserve their anonymity as they stage a rare protest, against Uganda's tough stance against homosexuality and in solidarity with their counterparts there, outside the Uganda High Commission in Nairobi, Kenya. Kenyan High Court judges on Monday, April 27, 2015 ordered a government agency to register a human rights group representing the country's gay people, a move which had previously been opposed on religious and moral grounds. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File) (The Associated Press)
A Kenyan court has ordered a government agency that regulates non-governmental organizations to recognize and register a human rights group seeking to protect the rights of gay people in the country.
The three judges of the High Court said in their ruling Monday that the Kenyan constitution recognizes and protects the rights of minorities. The Non-Governmental Organization Co-ordination Board had refused to register Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transsexual Intersex Queer-Kenya rights group on religious and moral grounds.
The Attorney General and the NGO Board and other parties had opposed the registration of the gay association but the judges said the Kenyan Constitution does not allow limitation of rights on moral or religious grounds.