Still here, still queer: LGBTQ+ Pride survives Kenya cuts

As Pride Month is marked around the world, LGBTQ+ organizations in Kenya are facing one of their toughest periods in years after major US funding cuts disrupted services many in the community depend on.

John Mathenge, director of Health Options for Young Men on HIV/AIDS / STIs (HOYMAS), told DW that the organization runs three facilities in Nairobi (the Kenyan capital), Kajiado (Rift Valley) and Nyeri (Central Kenya).

These centers serve LGBTQ+ people and other key populations, including men who have sex with men (MSM), sex workers, people who inject drugs and transgender individuals. "Pride means a lot to all of us as LGBTI persons in Kenya and globally, and Pride month is a month that we should always be proud of ourselves, but so far we are not because of the funding cuts from USAID ," Mathenge said.

The disruption followed stop-work orders issued by partners in response to US funding cuts.

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"You can imagine, in Nairobi, we had almost 25 staff and 110 volunteers, and we had to lay them off, all of them," he said. Mathenge estimates HOYMAS lost more than half of its funding. "We [are] actually currently working on a small budget. I think we lost almost like 60% of the funding that we used to get from different partners," he said.

Mathenge says maintaining services has required difficult compromises but stressed that limited support from Kenya's Social Health Authority has helped.

"The small money we get for primary health care is what we pay our clinicians, like three volunteers, to make sure that the small, small money we also procure some drugs," Mathenge said.