a relative of the LGBTQ+ activist sentenced to 50 years in prison

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It was a case that caused a lot of noise in the Kenya. A case about which the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, also said: shaken “. In January 2023, the lifeless body of Edwin Chiloba, an LGBTQ+ rights activist, was found in a trunk on the side of a road in the Rift Valley.

Almost two years later, the Kenyan courts have just handed down their decision in this case. This Tuesday, December 16, the Court of Justice in Eldoret, in the west of the country, found Jacktone Odhiambo, the former roommate and lover of Edwin Chiloba, guilty of the death of the activist and sentenced him to a sentence of 50 years in prison.

A mixed relief for the victim’s family

At the opening of the trial, the victim’s family requested the death penalty against the accused. If the judges did not go to this extreme, they nevertheless handed down a very heavy sentence which they justified by the diabolical way in which the crime was committed. During the course of the investigation, the autopsy of the body of Edwin Chiloba, in fact, made it possible to establish that he died of suffocation in the trunk where his remains were found, socks in his mouth and a piece jeans around the head.

For the victim’s family, however, this sentence is only a partial relief. While the motive for the crime has still not been established, the police have never agreed to treat this case as a case of domestic violence despite evidence of a relationship between the two men. As for Jacktone Odhiambo, he pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and expressed no remorse at the end of the trial, according to the judges.

Since sexual relations between people of the same sex are, in Kenya, punishable by law – penalties can be up to 14 years of imprisonment – LGBTQ+ people often face precariousness and discrimination.

Also readSuspect arrested after murder of Edwin Chiloba, figure of the LGBT+ community in Kenya