Kenyan LGBTQ activist’s murder has five suspects in custody

Edwin Chiloba, a well-known LGBTQ activist, was killed, and his mutilated body was discovered on a roadside last week, packed into a metal trunk. According to a court in Kenya, five suspects are currently being held in connection with the crime.

According to Kenyan police, they are looking into a potential love triangle as a possible reason for the murder.

Rights advocates believe that because homosexuality is against the law in Kenya, the murder was part of a larger wave of hate crimes.

Jacktone Odhiambo, a self-employed photographer who is rumoured to have known the 25-year-old Chiloba, a prominent member of Kenya’s LGBTQ community, for a very long time, was one of the five suspects brought in court in Eldoret on Monday.

Just one day before the arraignment, authorities detained three additional individuals for their suspected involvement in disposing of the victim’s remains. The family of Chiloba told VOA they are happy with the investigation’s progress even though they want justice for their ancestors.

According to Gaudensia Chirchir, Chiloba’s cousin and the family spokesperson, “We want the criminals or the killers of my brother to be tried according to the Kenyan law.”

Chiloba’s body, which was allegedly tossed from a moving automobile, was found some 40 kilometres outside of the Rift Valley town of Eldoret.

Numerous others have condemned the death, including Volker Turk, the U.N. human rights official, and Solomon Ayele Dersso, the African Union’s human rights commissioner.

Rights advocates claim that violence and discrimination against members of the LGBTQ community are escalating.

The incident involving Edwin is not a first, according to Fahe Kerubo, an LGBTQ activist with the Reproductive Health Network in Kenya. This occurs after the murders of Sheila Lumamba and others that I can recall.

“We’ve also noticed greater homophobia, especially online,” Kerubo continued. There have been many more incidences of discrimination against members of the LGBTQ community.

Homosexuality is prohibited in Kenya by a law from the British colonial era.