Sheila Lumumba. (Photo via Instagram)
A Kenyan court has sentenced a man convicted of murdering a nonbinary lesbian person to 30 years in prison.
The Washington Blade previously reported authorities on April 17, 2022, found Sheila Lumumba’s body in their home in Karatina, a town in Nyeri County. Authorities said Lumumba had been raped before their murder.
The Nyeri High Court on Dec. 19 sentenced Billington Wambui Mwathi in connection with Lumumba’s murder.
Three Kenyan advocacy groups — the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, galck+ and the Initiative for Equality and Non Discrimination — in a statement criticized the sentence.
“We express profound disappointment as the sentence falls tragically short of the justice Sheila deserves and the severity of the crimes committed,” it reads. “Sheila Lumumba’s murder on April 17, 2022, represented not only a heinous act of violence against an individual, but also an attack on the dignity and safety of the LGBTIQ+ community.”
“The leniency of this sentence sends a disconcerting message regarding the value placed on the lives of LGBTIQ+ individuals in our society,” adds the statement.
Read this story in Spanish here.
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