Kenyan court convicts housemate for LGBTQ activist's murder

A court in Kenya has found the housemate of an LBGTQ activist guilty of murder in the killing of the activist, whose body was discovered stashed in a metal box two years ago.

A High Court judge in the western city of Eldoret said Wednesday that the prosecution had shown that Jacktone Odhiambo suffocated Edwin Chiloba and stashed his body in a metal box that was dumped on the road with the help of his brother and cousin.

Odhiambo denied killing his housemate despite samples of DNA being found on the victim’s body, and witnesses testifying to hearing the two in a heated argument and seeing Odhiambo move the metal box.

DNA evidence indicated the two had an intimate physical relationship, but the court gave no finding on the motive for the killing.

Chiloba’s death in January 2023 attracted global interest at the time due to attitudes toward gay rights in Kenya, where sex between men is illegal and LGBTQ people have decried discrimination and attacks. However, the police ruled out the possibility that the killing was a hate crime, and arrested Odhiambo, who was sharing a house with Chiloba in Eldoret.

Police described finding the decomposing body of a man who was dressed in women’s clothes in a metal box after a motorcycle taxi rider saw people in a car dump the box.

Chiloba studied fashion design at the University of Eldoret and was widely known in the country's LGBTQ community for his fashion sense, activism, and speaking out against discrimination.

Kenya is largely a conservative society and the president has in the past said that gay rights are a nonissue in the East African country.