Human Rights Defender found dead in her home after she was murdered, allegedly by six unknown men.
The Queer community in Kenya is again mourning the brutal murder of a member. Sheila Adhiambo Lumumba, 25, was found dead in her house.
This was after she failed to turn up at work for three consecutive days and the colleagues decided to check up on her only to find her lifeless body drowned in a pool of her own blood, with eyes gorged out and stabs all over her torso.
The incident took place in Karatina, Nyeri County. According to the autopsy report, Sheila had been assaulted and murdered in her home by a gang of six men who are also said to have gang-raped the deceased before breaking her leg.
Following the discovery of her body, the LGBTQ community took to social media under #JusticeForSheila to criticize the ignorance by the state to offer protection for its Citizens and over general safety. The Penal code upholds the archaic homophobic laws adopted from the colonizers as efforts to Repeal them was dealt a blow by the High court ruling in 2019. This has created an environment for violations against the LGBTQ community to go un dealt with.
The police have made no mention of the killing nor suspicions of why the act might have been committed or any investigation progress reports.
Sheila’s case adds on to Joash, Anthony and Erica all LGBTQ-identifying persons who have been murdered in the past over their sexuality and no culprit or suspect has been reprimanded or sentenced. It bears mentioning that unfortunately these are not isolated incidences and are part of a pattern of attacks and violence against LGBTIQ persons in the country.
CMRSL condemns the murders, violence or discrimination of individuals on the basis of their sexuality and people should be held accountable for the loss of these innocent lives. We call out Directorate of Criminal Investigations, National Police Service and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to act on the case and deliver justice to Sheila’s family and the families of LGBTQ individuals whose lives were lost in the same way.
We continue to seek #JusticeForSheila thus we are kindly requesting your assistance in helping create more awareness of the case by Signing the Petition on CHANGE.ORG >> https://www.change.org/p/justiceforsheila-protectqueerkenyans
Rest in peace Sheila.
Forever in our Hearts.