GAY AND LESBIAN COALITION OF KENYA

The Income Generating Action –Empowerment Programme

The Income Generating Activity Empowerment Programme is a projects that seeks to provide an alternative and more progressive source of income hence economic empowerment to LGBTI individuals in Kenya. This will be done through offering technical skills enhancement and entrepreneurial skills to the needy individuals with an aim of transforming lives.

The objectives of the Project to the Community

• To improve the entrepreneurial and technical skills of LGBTI people.
• To promote economic self-reliance for the LGBTI community through entrepreneurship training.
• To develop new and sustainable enterprises/ income generating projects.
• To promote a culture of saving and financial literacy though micro finance referral and advice.
• To create a platform for rebuilding lives of LGBTI people who have been forced out of school, employment or homes due to their sexual orientation or gender identity
• Creating support systems for the LGBTI people to start supporting one another in rising above the economic problems due to their sexual orientation and gender identity.

GALCK as a community resource centre intends to bridge this gap by providing the requisite technical and entrepreneurial skills to ensure LGBTI individuals are in a position to compete in the job market as well as initiate and run successfully manage their own income generating initiatives.

Current IGA Progress

The Income Generating Action Team received over 52 applications from across the country and they are now collating the documents to know how many people applied, sieving the applications, signing their terms of reference, vouching the applicants to determine which ones qualify for the IGA support.

It is envisioned that this will be a project worth emulating and we hope it will be replicated at regional levels courtesy of continued national roll out with existing, new and emerging groups.

The review committee has had two sittings in the last one month, the first one being the criteria development and setting and the collation of the documents so as to know how many people applied for diverse courses. The second meeting was primarily intended to sieve the applications and identify gaps that render applications unreviewable. It was through this meeting that all applicants were contacted and requested to avail the necessary documents they had failed to hand in so as to aid in reviewing. Another convening is set to be held by the end of the month to finalise the reviewing of the applicants given that all applicants have handed in all necessary documents.

At every stage of this process, consultation is sought with each and every one of the of the GALCK member groups. They include; Gay Kenya, TEA [Transgender Education and Advocacy], AFRA-Kenya [Artists For Recognition and Acceptance], MWA [Minority Women in Action], PEMA-Kenya [Persons Marginalized and Aggrieved] and ISHTAR MSM. Affiliates, new and emerging groups have also offered tremendous support in the process. They include; URM [Upper Rift Minorite’], NYARWEK [Nyanza, Rift Valley and Western and Coalition].

On this day that has been declared the "Gay Hate Day" by Cameroonian Youth Rally in Cameroon who plan to hold hate parades, we in Kenya are also dogged by the same problems with incidents of violent attacks against sexual and gender minorities constantly on the increase.

Earlier today, it was reported on Identity Kenya: The Kenya Sexual and Gender Minorities News Service website three women sharing a resting room in downtown in a "bed-n-breakfirst" that they work and live in downtown Nairobi, were attacked by men known to them. Their alleged crime; being lesbians.

On the evening of Friday the 17th, the GALCK Communications and PR Officer had been informed of such an incident having taken place the previous Wednesday, but not to the magnitude that was reported in the Identity Kenya website. Collaborative Investigations Between HOYMAS, KESWA, GALCK and Individual Queer Activists who are in touch with these women, indicate that these women are still there and are "OK".

As a precautionary measure, especially with the possibility of threats of "violence and death", we shall still pursue these investigations further to ensure that when it is said that they are "OK", it means exactly that.

What we can speak of conclusively is reports that the matter was "reported to one of the lesbian groups in Nairobi but no action was taken since they were ‘not members of any group’."  The article was written without seeking clarification from the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALCK), which is the umbrella body for most LGBTIQ organizations in the country. It is therefore assumed that the said "Lesbian Group" is not a member of the coalition.The writer also did not seek information from one of the leaders of a well established Nairobi-Based Lesbian group which is coalition member, who is currently in an overseas work trip with the editor of Identity Kenya.

Identity Kenya also made an ethical violation by suggesting that one of these women is the brave witness who came forward to testify in a case that resulted in the conviction of the homophobic physical abuser of one of our community members less than two months ago. That conviction was only possible after a witness came forward. Otherwise it could have gone the way of many other similar cases where members of the LGBTI community are blackmailed, assaulted, raped and even murdered. For obvious reasons, we cannot disclose the identities of such witnesses neither can we say if the witness was a man or a woman, but we hope Identity Kenya will keep this in mind in future.

However the main issue at this time is the possibility that these three women are silent due to intimidation, and that cannot be taken lightly.

We shall follow up on this and ensure all is brought to light.

"In August 2012, a collective of Queer Africans living in Kenya met to talk about a radical queer agenda and the potential for collective action across a broad range of queer identified peoples. We have come together as the Utata Collective in support of the objectives and principles of the Queer African Manifesto developed in 2010 in Nairobi. We are not do not seek to be a formalised organisation, we are simply a collective of queer Africans resisting capitalism, imperialism, ethnic chauvinism, patriarchy, persecution and disappearance of multiple queer identities. We are for the building of a self-determined Africa from the body to the nation and we believe, in line with the manifesto, in economic, environmental, social, political, erotic and cultural justice for all. What we want is to build a Left political base in Kenya amongst Queer Africans and build bridges across like minded movements working towards the principles of liberation.

The Utata collective believes that without political consciousness amongst the masses there will be no liberation. To support this process we will be holding movie nights through the Galck center and facilitating discussion among queer Africans to build on all of our knowledge on the journey to liberation."

This Saturday, 18th August 2012 at 2pm, we shall be screening our first in a series of movies.. Karibuni one and all. We shall have discussions and refreshments thereafter..