The much-awaited gay-sex ruling will wait longer as the court is not ready due to excessive workload by judges amid security concerns for the LGBT+ community.
The judgment was to be delivered Friday morning but judge Chacha Mwita said it was not ready as some judges had been busy.
While apologizing for not being able to deliver the ruling, Justice Chacha Mwita said:
“We have had a few challenges, one of our colleagues is still on leave the other one is outside Nairobi while two of us are involved in other benches of more than three judges. It is not an easy task to bring the three of us together.”
He set the decision for May 24.
“We plan to meet in April if all goes well and see whether we can come up with a decision. You do not appreciate what the judges are going through,” said Judge Mwita.
However, there have also been security concerns ahead of the much-anticipated ruling with Kenya National Commission on Human Rights police to provide security for the Sexual Orientation Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) community.
In a letter addressed to Nairobi County Police Commander, KNCHR wanted police to enhance security within the court precincts and ensure that the there is no breach of law and order.
The ruling is on a case where Eric Gitari, the director of National Gay and Lesbian Rights Commission seeks to have Sections 162 and 165 of the Penal Code decriminalised.
In 2010, Kenya adopted its new constitution, which provides for equality, human dignity and freedom from discrimination. Petitioners now want the sections of the law repealed, saying they violate constitutional rights.
Section 165 of the constitution has it that a man who commits any act of indecency with another man, or procures a man to commit indecency with him, or attempts to procure the commission of any such act with himself or with another male may be jailed for five years.
A positive ruling will have wider implications across Africa, which has some of the most prohibitive laws against homosexuality in the world, say campaigners.
Same-sex relationships are considered taboo and are a crime across most of the continent, with punishments ranging from imprisonment to death.