A court in Nairobi, Kenya, has sentenced two men to 15 years in prison for the attack and robbery of two gay men.

As The Guardian reports, the attack on two men, given the pseudonyms Eric Anyango and Joe Ochieng, occurred in April 2023. The pair, who were friends, went to the home of a man they had been speaking to on Facebook. However, three other men arrived at the property, and subjected Anyango and Ochieng to a prolonged attack in which they were beaten, slapped and kicked.

The perpetrators took their clothes, phones and wallets and forced them to call friends and family and ask them to transfer money to the attackers. They were threatened with the prospect of being outed as members of the LGBTQ+ community and with death.

After the attack, the men went to the police, and two of the perpetrators were arrested. Njeri Gateru, the executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, a Kenyan-based human rights group, has pointed to an increase in crimes of this nature. Gateru has also said that the perpetrators of the attack on Anyango and Ochieng are members of a gang that targets queer men, as The Guardian reports.

Ishtar, a group which advocates for gay men in Kenya, have reported 226 cases of blackmail and extortion targeting LGBTQ+ people in 2025.

The sentencing of the two perpetrators, who have been given the pseudonym “Abel Meli & Another”, has been viewed as a landmark moment for Kenya’s queer community, especially given the fact that the country’s laws criminalise same-sex relations with up to 14 years in prison.

Additionally, a proposed bill, titled the Family Protection Bill, could see LGBTQ+ rights rolled back even further, with limits on both education and freedom of expression. If enacted, the proposal would also prevent landlords from renting to organisations that support the LGBTQ+ community, and it would allow for LGBTQ+ people to be denied emergency medical care if they engaged in prohibited sex acts.