Kenyan Police have commenced investigation after the body of a prominent LGBTQ rights campaigner, Edwin Chiloba, was found stuffed inside a metal box in the west of the country, local media reported on Friday.
On Wednesday, 4 January, 2023, Chiloba’s mutilated corpse was found stashed in a metal box along the Kipenyo-Kaptinga road, in Kapsaret, Uasin Gishu, where he ran his fashion business, independent rights group the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) said.
“He was brutally killed & dumped in the area by unknown assailants,” KHRC said on Twitter.
“It is truly worrisome that we continue to witness escalation in violence targeting LGBTQ+ Kenyans.”
Research suggests acceptance of homosexuality is gradually increasing in Kenya, but it remains a taboo subject for many. The country’s film board has banned two films for their portrayals of gay lives in recent years.
According to the police, preliminary investigations show that a car without a plate number was seen dropping the metal box in the area.
The matter was reported to police officers who were manning a nearby roadblock. The officers abandoned their post and rushed to the scene. Upon opening the box, a decomposing body of a man dressed in a woman’s clothes was found inside.
It was later established that the dead body was that of the fashion designer and gay rights activist.
His remains were then deposited at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital awaiting post-mortem to establish the cause of death as investigations start.
Speaking on the incident, the spokesperson of the Kenyan Police Force, Resila Onyango said they are yet to know the motive.
“We don’t know for now why he was killed that way. Experts are handling the matter,” she said.
“Words cannot even explain how we as a community are feeling right now. Edwin Chiloba was a fighter, fighting relentlessly to change the hearts and minds of society when it came to LGBTQ+ lives,” GALCK, a Kenyan gay rights group, said on Twitter.
Under a British colonial-era law, gay sex in Kenya is punishable by 14 years in prison. It is rarely enforced but discrimination is common.
In early July 2022, Edwin posted the horrific photos above on Instagram, after he was attacked and assaulted ostensibly because of who he was and his work in gender-fluid fashion and content.
