Kenyan court jails two men for 15 years over violent robbery of gay victims

Two men have been sentenced to 15 years in prison in Kenya after attacking and robbing two gay men in Nairobi.

Court documents identified the defendants as “Abel Meli & Another”. They were convicted of robbery with violence and sentenced on 3 March at the Milimani law courts.

The case relates to an incident in April 2023 involving two men identified by the Guardian as Eric Anyango and Joe Ochieng (names have been changed). According to the report, Ochieng had been communicating with a man on Facebook and arranged to meet him at his home. Shortly after the pair arrived, three other men entered the property.

“I tried to resist and I wanted to fight back” – Eric Anyango told the Guardian

For several hours, the victims were assaulted. They were slapped, kicked and beaten while their phones, wallets and clothing were taken. They were also forced to contact friends and relatives and ask them to transfer money to online accounts.

“I tried to resist and I wanted to fight back,” Anyango told the Guardian. “That’s when one of them took a knife, held it at me and said: ‘If you don’t cooperate now, I will stab you and throw you out the window.’”

After contacting several people, the victims transferred 100,000 Kenyan shillings (£576) to the men before being released.

According to the newspaper, Anyango later contacted a friend who referred him to Ishtar, a Nairobi-based organisation that advocates for the rights of men who have sex with men.

Kenya criminalises same-sex relations, with penalties of up to 14 years in prison

A paralegal from the organisation accompanied the pair to a police station to report the incident. Two suspects were subsequently arrested.

Kenya criminalises same-sex relations, with penalties of up to 14 years in prison. Advocacy groups say crimes targeting LGBTQ+ people are often underreported. Ishtar recorded 226 cases of blackmail and extortion involving men who have sex with men in 2025 and 61 cases in the first two months of 2026, the Guardian reported.

Njeri Gateru, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, said the case showed prosecutions were still possible despite the legal environment.

“A lot is going against [the queer community] with the existence of the criminal laws and prevailing homophobic attitudes, but some of us still trust that we can find justice, so this case encourages us,” she said.