In 2014 a group of Ugandan trans refugees played netball in the camp, and other homophobic refugees attacked them and stoned them because according to them they “played sport like girls”, and they “played a girls’ game – netball”. Building up to this attack, they had already been previously attacked many times, but didn’t always report it, because the security at the Camp did nothing when previous reports were made. After this stoning, the victims reported it to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) for protection. Later homophobic and transphobic attacks resulted in death from the attacks and one victim committed suicide. Victor said

“this is where I came in, I already defended them in Uganda, it is people that I knew that ended up in this situation. So, I came in, as somebody who can amplify what happened in Kakuma Refugee Camp.”

It was a very personal struggle for Victor, both because the majority of the refugees are Ugandans (whom he knows) and also because as an activist in the Diaspora who was granted asylum in the US, he understands what they are going through.

One of the platforms Victor used to amplify these homophobic and transphobic attacks was Kuchu TV. Here is the first of four episodes about these attacks:

The Kuchu Diaspora Alliance in the US (KDA-USA) was founded by Victor to highlight issues faced by Kuchus (a Swahili word adopted by the Ugandan LGBTQIA+ community in the Camp. The word loosely translates to “queer”.) from the Diaspora and back home. The Kuchu Alliance fundraised for the LGBTQIA+ refugees in the Camp and partnered in fund raising efforts with the Global Rights Institute, which is the human rights arm of the Global Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC). Together they raised enough funds to rent more that 80 small houses for these refugees and paid their rent for months.

In this video clip from The Victor Mukasa Show, Victor speaks to Liesl Theron about how his early work and involvement with the Kuchus at the Kakuma Refugee Camp started, and how after these funds were raised, other global activists became involved. This involvement would not prove enough, as Victor was again approached by the Kuchus in June 2020.

The violence the Kuchu TV series focused on was the incidents of stonings, beatings, poisonings and verbal abuse perpetrated against the more than 45 Ugandan LGBTQIA+ residents in the Kakuma Camp. Victor speaks about the violence that occurred on Friday the 27th of June, where one of the Ugandan refugees was attacked by a group of refugees. He was beaten up badly because, according to the other refugees, he committed the crime of being gay. Statements by other refugees included the argument that

“This camp is for refugees. It is not for wild animals.”

The group of attacking refugees followed the victim back to his group of fellow LGBTQI+ Ugandan refugees and began beating them too. The victims ran to the security of the Camp. The security, instead of protecting them, asked them why they showed that they were gay, thus blaming the victims for their own beatings. Not receiving help from security, the victims marched out of the Camp for two hours to the offices of the UNHRC in search of protection. This protection was not provided to them by the UNHRC. Victor goes into more detail about the situation in the videos below.

In a 2023 report, “Kenya: ‘Justice Like Any Other Person’ — Hate Crimes and Discrimination Against LGBTI Refugees”, Amnesty International and the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) documented the hate crimes faced by LGBTI refugees and those refugees in the Kakuma Camp.

An article by Amnesty International states that

“Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) asylum seekers and refugees living in one of Kenya’s biggest refugee camps routinely suffer hate crimes, violence, including rape, and other serious human rights abuses, the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) and Amnesty International said in a joint report. ‘LGBTI individuals in Kakuma camp have suffered physical and sexual violence and other serious human rights abuses, including violations of their right to be free from torture and ill-treatment, because of their sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, or sexual characteristics,’ said Victor Nyamori, Amnesty International’s Researcher and Advisor on Refugee and Migrants Rights. Such hate crimes are a criminal manifestation of the discrimination LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers face.

The testimonies collected in the Report point to systematic and pervasive inaction by police in Kakuma refugee camp to effectively, promptly, independently, and thoroughly investigate allegations of hate crimes reported by LGBTI asylum seekers and refugees.

Esther, a 41-year-old lesbian woman, reported being raped twice in Kakuma camp. In early 2018, she was attacked by two men carrying knives while she was showering in a plot near the camp gate. One raped her while the other held her down. Later that year, she was raped a second time by four men during a burglary at her house, in the presence of her seven-year-old son with whom she was sharing a bed.

Winnie, a lesbian woman, had a business in the market, where LGBTI friends used to buy. She told the researchers that one day in 2019 she was away from work and left one of her children to take care of the business. A group of people destroyed the stall and injured the child, saying that the LGBTI customers were affecting other businesses. When she went to report the crime, the police told her to look for the attackers and bring them to the police station to be arrested.”

Victor worked with the refugees in July 2014 again due to more violence against the Kuchu refugees. Read more about the Kakuma Refugee Camp here.

Series 1—5 on Kuchu TV

“Kuchu” is a Swahili word roughly translated to mean “queer”. It was adopted by the LGBTQIA+ community who fled Uganda after the signing of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law on 20 December 2013.

At the time, Victor founded the Kuchu Diaspora Alliance (KDA-USA) in the United States, which works to address the needs of LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers. Victor created Kuchu TV as part of the work of the Kuchu Diaspora Alliance.

On 29 June 2014, Kuchu TV aired a 5-part series contextualising the violence perpetrated against LGBTQIA+ residents of the Camp.

About the Kakuma Refugee Camp

The Kakuma Refugee Camp is based in rural Kenya in Turkana County. “Kakumu” means “nowhere” in Swahili. The Camp was established in 1992 to house “The Lost Boys of Sudan”, who were children who escaped the war in Sudan, Somalia and some camps in Ethiopia. The original size of the Camp was estimated to be 12,000. Currently the population is over 200,000 refugees from more than 20 countries. The Camp is often the site of violence as there are ongoing tensions between the impoverished refugees and the local community. This violence is fuelled by the fact that, compared to the wider region, the Kakuma Camp has better health facilities and a higher percentage of children in full-time education, due to the humanitarian aid that the Camp receives from organisations such as the International Rescue Committee.

Following the passing of the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill, a large community of Kuchus fled to the camp. This community is often most affected by the violence as the UNHRC (UN Refugee Agency) and the Kenyan Police Services and Government do not protect the LGBTQIA+ community.