The mob of Mtwapa
A rumour, a hate campaign, a mob: how an HIV clinic in Kenya became the target of vigilante justice.
On 12 February 2010, several hundred men marched through the streets of Mtwapa, a coastal town north of Mombasa. Their target was a small health centre run by the state Kenya Medical Research Institute, KEMRI for short. There, men who have sex with men received HIV tests, counselling and condoms. For the crowd, that was proof enough that homosexuality was being promoted here.
Others had prepared the ground. For weeks, a rumour had been circulating that a wedding between two men was to take place in Mtwapa. Local radio stations picked it up. In mosques, people were called on to expose homosexuals, and a day before the attack a sheikh and a bishop jointly demanded the closure of the clinic at a press conference.
What followed was vigilante justice. Groups searched houses, and a man on his way to the centre was beaten and almost set on fire before the police intervened. Two clinic staff ended up in custody, one apparently only because of a T-shirt with a safer sex message. An official announced that those arrested would be medically examined to prove their homosexuality. The attackers, by contrast, were left alone.
Following its own research, Human Rights Watch concluded that the violence had been planned, not spontaneous. In the days that followed there were also attacks in Mombasa. The clinic in Mtwapa remained closed, and the staff were left shaken.
That is precisely what makes the case so bitter. The hate campaign hit not only individuals, but the very facility meant to protect a particularly vulnerable group from HIV. Mtwapa became an early example of how rumours, religious mobilisation and a passive state can work together in East Africa. Sex between men is still a crime in Kenya today.