Hear our cry!! A letter from LGBTIQ refugees in Kenya
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| LGBTIQ refugees peacefully protesting the deduction of Financial Assistance in front of UNHCR offices in Nairobi |
Dear World, fellow LGBTIQs and friends of the Rainbow,
Greetings from LGBTIQ refugees from Kenya (Nairobi and Kakuma). Hope this message finds you well.
We appreciate God for all the blessings of 2017. Although it has been a very difficult year for most of our LGBTI colleagues, there are definitely things to thank God for. We condole with those who have lost loved ones and wish those who are unwell a quick recovery.
In the year 2017, our LGBTIQ community has faced enormous difficulties. We witnessed some of the worst forms of crime and insecurity. Gruesome murders of prominent personalities in different parts of the world and of course so many other LGBTI whose sickness went unreported!
We also lost formidable refugee colleagues like John Paul and Roger also known as Nana, We pray that their souls rest in peace.
This year, the LGBTIQ refugee community reported that more colleagues are going into extreme poverty and we have no reason to doubt them. When you go to kakuma refugee camp and parts of Nairobi surburbs where majority of us reside, you get to see the extent of poverty and the poor living conditions we live in. Most of our colleagues cannot even afford their basic needs.
As we all know nothing is as dehumanising as poverty. Of course the community still faces shameful levels of their sexuality with many young people struggling to get onto the next plane to go and be enslaved in other countries. Those who do not have that chance have often times resorted to desperate means of survival like petty crimes and sex work which is illegal and punishable by law in their country of asylum.
Our community has been on efforts to address the poor working conditions exploitation of the highest order by their employers. Our men and women in community continue to earn peanuts and exploitation by their bosses using advantage of their status in the country. This continue to happen in the watch of the UN refugee agency - UNHCR and its implementing partners but none has come out to address the issue but rather they hold and see us suffer all through all the time.
Our staying in Nairobi, Kenya has put our lives on "pause" for several years _For we live a hopeless life and we don't know what the future holds for us.
Now to crown up this state of affairs, our community which has spent almost half of the year bickering over the financial assistance and the long appointments for the Refugee Status Determination interviews passed it in total disregard of basic principles.
Most UNHCR officials and a few other traitors voted to remove finacal assistance and increasing the duration of appointments of the R.S.D interviews for the LGBTIQ refugee community and make People suffer and forcefully persuade us to go to Kakuma refugee camp which is far worse hostile for LGBTIQ persons. When you look at the amount of money spent on livelihoods and compare how many things that money would do for our community if everyone is given finacal assistance, you cannot help but wonder what kind of people manage our affairs. Our legislators did not think about over 85% of our people who were clearly opposed to the removal of the financial assistance .
As if under a curse, the directive indicates if one can't support him/herself in town I mean Nairobi, should pack-up and go to the camp!
Now it's to our notice that either our leaders' hands are actually tied or they no longer represent the LGBTIQ community but rather for themselves, therefore it's time for us the community to take charge...
So our community system has gone from bad to worse and therefore, LGBTIQ refugee community should prepare themselves for tough times if they do not make tough decisions.
A few weeks ago many of us watched saw madam Beth Wairuiru (LGBTIQ focal person, UNHCR) and Mr Kelly Imathiu (Protection officer HIAS Kenya) clearly coming from their own words representing their respective organisations in which they said Financial Assistance to LGBTIQ refugees in Nairobi was to end come early next year 2018.
Its absurd that organisation cannot identify with the daily struggles and challenges of LGBTIQ refugees and whenever comes out to speak, they(organisations) instead remind us of the yet to end finacial assistance!.
Like a failed state, what the refugee organisations normally do, they have surrounded themselves with sycophants and praise singers who, for some bread paint a rosy picture of our community while the common person suffers and pays the price of their luxurious lifestyle in pose of community leaders. And so the gap between the minority LGBTI and the "majority" LGBTIQ continues to widen. So sad!!
Regardless of all this, our message for the New Year is of HOPE. As late Eriya Kategaya wrote “In the course of the struggle, those who have everything to lose by democracy" and LGBTIQ community are expected to put up resistance. These forces may appear fearsome but history is replete with such cases and THEY NEVER WIN IN THE END. What we should fear is fear itself.”
We fully understand the state of sadness that covers our community this season. But we must not lose hope. Always remember that anti-democracy forces never win in the end. Our duty is to ensure that we do what we must do for the sake of our future. At the end of each day we must each ask ourselves what we have done to move our community towards real FREEDOM.
We know most of us have dreams for a better community but we must not only dream. As a youthful community, we cannot afford to fold hands and let our community(LGBTI) sink even further. We must make our stand firm and remind those in office that LGBTI Q community is ready for a 21st century leadership to resolve the problems which entangle us in this century.
A leadership which can tap into our enormous resources and put them to good use for the benefit of all LGBTIQ people in Nairobi, Kenya.
A leadership which can tap into our enormous resources and put them to good use for the benefit of all LGBTIQ people in Nairobi, Kenya.
We continue to say to ourselves ''We are the community, We are the LGBTIQ and We are the victims, finally we are the change we badly need."
We are grateful to you all for the love and support this year. We are glad our efforts are beginning to pay off as more people gain consciousness and confidence to think and act for their community.
Many of you say “We are ready, just don't know to do what to do.” This gives us and other colleagues in the struggle the courage to soldier on, well knowing that the population is with us.
We are grateful to the religious leaders who have courageously confronted the evil forces on the pulpit during this season and pray that God will give you more boldness to continue standing for the truth even in these trying times.
We are also thankful to the the traditional leaders, the civil society, the civil servant, NGOs, Kenyan nationals and all other Ugandans who are each playing their role in the struggle to emancipate our LGBTIQ refugee community and the entire LGBTIQ community.
Finally, to our fellow LGBTIQs in the struggle for CHANGE, we must urgently get UNITED. The world wants to see us United and speaking with one voice - their voice. I pray that in the New year we find more reason to work together than working apart.
#Hear_Our_Cry
Happy new year once again as we all fight for #FREEDOM
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