The body of young fashion designer Edwin Chiloba was discovered discarded by the side of the road in the town of Eldoret, and the Kenyan police are now looking into his death.
Police have detained a suspect who is thought to be the victim’s acquaintance, but they have not revealed their suspicions.
Additionally, an LGBTQ activist, Edwin Chiloba’s murder has been connected to his sexuality by rights groups in Kenya, where gay intercourse is illegal.
According to one organization, more than half of LGBTQ Kenyans have experienced abuse.
“Words aren’t even adequate to capture how our community is currently experiencing. Yet another life lost to hatred. You will be missed, wrote the rights group galck+ on Twitter.
“Edwin’s death reminds us that queer bodies continue to be under attack all over the country,” the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission wrote on Instagram.
Tributes on social media describe Chiloba, who was in his mid-20s, as “an amazing human” and an “iconic fashion designer”.
Last month Chiloba wrote on Instagram that he was “going to fight for all marginalised people”, saying that he himself had been marginalised.
An activist and friend of Chiloba, Chris Makena says, “he spread love wherever he went, was bold about his existence as a queer man and encouraged many others to do the same.”
A different acquaintance of Chiloba’s claims that he had relocated to Eldoret from the nation’s capital, Nairobi, in 2019 to pursue a career in fashion design.
On Wednesday, his corpse was found.
A witness called the police to report that they saw someone abandoning a metal box by the side of the road in a car without a license plate.
According to Resila Onyango, a police spokesperson, “We don’t know for now why he was slain that manner. The issue is being handled by experts.
According to a different police official, the suspect is believed to have been Chiloba’s longtime acquaintance, the AFP news agency reported.
In Kenya, having gay intercourse can result in up to 14 years in prison. Members of the nation’s LGBTQ community frequently experience stigma and prejudice, despite the fact that the law is rarely implemented, and efforts to decriminalize gay sex have been rebuffed.
The murder of non-binary lesbian Sheila Lumumba last year sparked the hashtag #JusticeForSheila social media campaign.
Following the killings of LGBTQ activist Joash Mosoti and transgender activist Erica Chandra in 2021, similar campaigns were launched.
