Beyonce

Beyonce is a Ugandan refugee living in Nairobi where she is supported by Nature Network. Beyonce left Uganda after her family discovered that she is transgender.

“I’m from Uganda. I’m a proud transgender, but I’m in Nairobi as a refugee. I ran away from Uganda because my family and the community found out that I’m gay. I was beaten to death, but I survived. But my family continued to look for me. They also went to the radio station. They say that whoever sees me they should contact them or to kill me. That’s when I ran to Nairobi in 2015.”

Beyonce came to Nairobi hoping to find a safer life than in Uganda, however she often still finds intense discrimination towards LGBTQI+ people.

“In Nairobi it’s very difficult as transgender women or transgender. We found life very difficult. Also in Nairobi people are homophobic. People try to threaten you. People try to attack you, because they can’t allow gay people in their country. It’s very difficult and I myself I can’t move around, because a lot of community and people are homophobic, so it’s very difficult here. There’s a high risk for LGBT to get HIV, because their clients may say that ‘I’m paying you $20, but I don’t want us to use condom. This person, the LGBT refugee he may, because he needs the money, so he will risk his life then he sleep with the guy. There is a high risk for that. I hope my future it will be like … to have a freedom, to be who I am and to do something that I can do when someone can’t stop me. When someone also can love me, where I can be loved.”

Ronnie

Ronnie, a Ugandan refugee and LGBTQI+ activist with Nature Network. Ronnie’s mother supported him in Uganda, knowing he was gay, but after her death he decided to leave the country.

“My mom had already discovered my sexuality without even telling her anything. She advised me to keep a low profile and have one person because there are a lot of diseases in gay community. She also told me to go slow as the community and culture do not accept homosexuality, and if they knew, I would be killed, disowned, imprisoned, abandoned and cursed. The community came to hear rumours of me being gay and they looked at as a taboo, but my mom never stopped accepting and defending me. Unfortunately, after a few years she died an abrupt death and that was all of my life because she was the only person I had. She was the only person I had, someone who supported and defended me.”

Ronnie met a Kenyan man through Facebook who encouraged him to come to Nairobi. After arriving in Nairobi, the man refused, encouraging him to earn money through sex work. Without valid ID or legal status Ronnie engaged in sex work to survive, aware that he was making himself vulnerable to HIV. “I met the guy. We went to his place, but after using me, he started telling me how he can’t stay with someone who doesn’t work as he’s not financially stable. But, he can connect me to some people. I can give sex for money as I earn a living.”

Ronnie now is the leader of the Nature Network which works to provide support to LGBTQI+ refugees. As many refugees turn to sex work to survive, much of Nature Network’s work revolves around HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness. “Many of us have acquired HIV from rape because some people know they are living with HIV and they rape refugees, end up getting HIV. Sex work, a lot of refugees engage in sex work to earn a living. Not that they want, but because of the situation they are living in.”

Nakitende Aisha

Nakitende Aisha says she knew she was lesbian when she was 13 years old. She describes her family’s reaction. “My family members want to kill me after they found out that I am a lesbian. Even villagers wanted to kill me. My family told the villagers that in case they saw me, they should kill me. That my family would pay them.”

Her village was not safe, but neither were the streets of Kampala. In 2000 walking back from the country’s only LGBT bar (since closed by the President) she was beaten with a metal pole and gang raped. “I get to realise I was sick in 2014. That is after I started to fall sick frequently which was never the case for me.” Aisha tested positive for HIV. Given that she did not have sex with men, she presumes she contracted the disease when she was raped. Fearing for her life she fled her native Uganda for Kenya.

She describes how life is here in the country where she seeks sanctuary. “Even in Kenya, the neighbours don’t like me. They abuse me saying I am a disgusting lesbian… we are not at peace even here in Kenya.” She has continued to face attacks here in Kenya and after one particularly violent one, lives in fear. “I am always scared, worried that they could come back and kill me because they had machetes and they were 15 in number. So I worry that they could come back and behead me… my heart has never been at peace since then. It is always pumping hard. I am always worried that those men could come back and kill me here in Kenya.”

Aisha, like all LGBTQI+ refugees in Kenya hopes to be resettled to a country that will accept her for who she is. The emotional turmoil of her circumstances, and lack of any hope weighs heavily on her. “For the future, I feel like committing suicide because I am not happy at all here in Kenya… Only God knows. We are just strong hearted but people hate us.”

Lucky & John

Lucky (right) and John (left), Ugandan refugees living in Nairobi. Lucky and John lived together in Uganda until John’s parents found out they were in a relationship and attacked Lucky. They hid with a friend and saved enough money to flee to Kenya.

They were registered separately as refugees and they were able to find some sanctuary with NGO Nature Network. “The life now in Nairobi, because of the Nature Network we have, the little money we are getting, it help me someway, somehow, and the Nature Network come in, they do pay us rent here, they buy us food.”

Faith has been an important part of keeping them strong through their trials. “If it wasn’t God’s help, we would have already died, because I remember the time when the parents came to attack him [Lucky], and then, they wanted to kill him, if it was not God, he would have already died, but God knows us, God loves us, so he managed to protect us all the way from Uganda up to here, we are together.”

Gregory

Gregory (not his real name) is a Ugandan refugee living in the Kakuma refugee camp in north western Kenya. Gregory was forced to leave his community after he and his partner were witnessed having sex. “My uncle was angry about it. He decided to abduct me, with the help of some of my family members. They took me to a mud house in the village for two days. I was screaming for help, mercy. Cattle keeper heard me, broke in to rescue me. I ran away the same evening. I had no other option, but to cross into Kenya.”

Gregory was tested HIV positive in Kenya and has found that accessing medication and adequate diet is a challenge as a refugee unable to work and obtain funds to maintain his health. “Due to poor feeding, the medication makes you dizzy. You wake up weak, feeling dizzy. You feel your head is spinning around, because last night, you didn’t eat, because the doctors tell you should swallow the ARVs when you’re going to sleep. Then, in the morning, you take suppository, so you wake up with the dizziness of the ARVs. And you take that when you don’t even know what you’re going to eat. You have to stay in the house. The house is hot. You’re dehydrating. So, makes you weak in that way. If you go to the clinic to pick up some medication, you walk in the scorching sun, because this is a semi-desert. The degrees are very high. 40+. You walk an hour. You dehydrate. Then, an hour back to where you live. So, it’s kind of frustrating. Transportation, poor feeding, the environment. Everything is challenging.”

He says the conditions are made even more challenging because of the stigma of being HIV positive. “People discriminate people who are HIV positive, and mostly, in Africa, they see that as a curse. They even call it bad luck.”

Jonah, an LGBTI Ugandan refugee, who lives in Nairobi and is supported by Nature Network. After Jonah’s uncle, who he lived with, discovered Jonah is gay, he attacked him. “My uncle came to our room, dragged me from the bed. On top of his voice, saying ‘I’m a disgrace, I’m a curse, I’m a criminal that needed to be killed’. He went to the kitchen, and got a big wood, and started beating me with it. I bled. He campaigned other people to beat me up, and here, some neighbours came to rescue me, ’cause they wouldn’t let me be killed in the neighbourhood.”

“The challenges I face here in Kenya, we happen to be given the 4500KSH [GBP 34.50] every month which happen to be not enough, ’cause the life of living in Kenya is a bit expensive, so people tend to engage in sex work as a way of generating income to supplement on the money being given. We have a problem of health. When someone falls sick, and the way the UN guys respond to it, it’s on a slow pace, ’cause you have to email to them, go to the UN offices a couple of times, and you know all during that time, you’re in pain, and they keep on giving the appointments, so if it’s not amongst your friends to mobilise and get you money, and you be treated, some of our friends have died. I have a couple of friends who are passed on, and then, my other problems are, since so many people have been engaging in sex work, so many of them have been infected, and a number of them have died of AIDS.”

Ashiraf & Kajjan

Ugandans Ashiraf (23, right) and Kajjan (23, left). Ashiraf identifies as a transgender woman and Kajjan as gay. While same sex marriage is not legal in Uganda, in 2015 the pair got married in a hotel.

“We had happiness at the party” says Ashiraf, and then adds “and that was the day.” That was the day their new married life began, and also the day their lives changed for the worse.

A friend took photos of the wedding and posted them on social media. Local newspapers got hold of the photos and published them. Two weeks later their neighbours recognised them in the newspaper and went to the police. A mob attacked their house. “They said a lot of stuff, that we are sons of evil, we need to go to hell, we shall kill them direct if we get them.” That night they packed their bags and left for Kenya.

But life in Kenya was not what they had hoped. They struggled to be registered by the United Nations refugee agency, and struggled even more to find a place to settle down. “After three months in Kenya, our life was not good at all, as we kept on migrating from one place to another because Kenya is like Uganda they don’t allow us in here. We were beaten, abused, tortured on the way when we were moving,” says Ashiraf.

“My boyfriend is HIV positive and I am negative but I have (high blood) pressure. Life is hard because we don’t have money to eat yet we have to take our medicine. The landlord is chasing us out of the house because we don’t have money. I tried to look for jobs but couldn’t get because I naturally look like a transgender. Whenever I go to look for jobs I am abused that I am a lady, sometimes beaten.”

Kajjan agrees – “Up to present time, we are still suffering because I am HIV positive though my boyfriend isn’t, we have nothing to eat, nor food.”