Kampala Key, Vulnerable and Priority Populations (KVP) News

Ngai was putting together, the immobile Mount Kenya, it took so many things, somewhere on the slopes, whose expanse extends far and wide, undulating into the Aberdares and beyond, was one place where your ancestors, made their home, the day you were born, there was a name waiting for you, that name was Kamau, the day you were born, a human being full of dignity, love and joy was made, that human being was Kamau, you were the part, destined to be mobile, you grew so fast and left a trailblazer, all over the world, you were beloved, grand in stature, magnanimous to kith, kin and strangers alike, you stretched far, wide and high, Kamau Emmanuel Mukere, Auntie Ivy, one hot Summer in Washington DC, I was a new immigrant to USA, to whom you reached out, you were in Dallas Texas, via the waves, we had a long talk, a long-winded talk indeed, I recall so many things you said, 'be defined by other than what you have,' is one of them, you liberated...

Lisa Mackey  UN Human Rights Commission: Please deal with UNHCR Kenya and the Government of Kenya's failure to protect basic human rights. This Facebook post sums up events on the ground currently in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=194016135098522&id=100034704112460 I am Lisa Mackey, an American citizen and permanent resident of Iceland. I advocate for and provide psychosocial support to LGBTQI refugees in Kenya. I speak with multiple refugees every day. I was working on preparing a better email about this, but there is breaking news happening NOW in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya! UNHCR is ABSOLUTELY COMPLICIT in this genocide in the making. This article is outdated, as the death toll from this football riot had reached 15, I believe: http://news-af.op-mobile.opera.com/.../95c618ea803b0954d8... ******* The following are short quotes I have received this weekend from LGBTQI in camp: From a refugee: "In this ve...

We believe in niche-advocacy. The UHC Micro-grant will enable us organize and conduct activities not normally facilitated by funders. We hope to use this opportunity to show case the need for Refugee LGBTIQQ Targeting strategic Public health services. Scope of Work: The Nature Network, ROSCEA, SWKPAAP and MARPS in Uganda are four organizations that work together to leverage their potential to advocate for quality life through mobilizing communities to participate in daily activities of life and engaging in best practices promoting health, most especially for marginalized population groups. Nature Network's Niche: Kenya -based Transgender-Led, Refugee social support safe space and uses Family-Based Therapy activities to build a context stimulating healing, agency, autonomy, self-belief, self-determination and self-preservation. They enhance continued humanization of refugees by highlighting opportunities for participation in daily activities of life through planned...

Two studies one by Muyunga-Mukasa and another by Ayesiga, targeting LGBTIQQ communities show the resilience they exhibit amidst persecution, dejection, rejection, destitution and how they have arisen to craft and create their own paths to a happy life. They are no cry-babies no more! They have leveraged their situation and engaged in activities to promote self-belief, self-preservation and self-determination. They have harnessed their agency and navigated the social contexts as they enhance their autonomy. This is in form of daily activities of life: dressing, housing, talents, expression, and productivity, commitment to work and how they appropriate resources around them. This is an abstract of the study conducted by Muyunga-Mukasa in 2019. The study established how story telling is a mechanism by which LGBTIQ+ are reconstructing productivity, meaningfulness and setting up paths for self-determination. Technology, LGBTIQQ-themed Messaging and Proxies for Coping; Ref...

Two studies one by Muyunga-Mukasa and another by Ayesiga, targeting LGBTIQQ communities show the resilience they exhibit amidst persecution, dejection, rejection, destitution and how they have arisen to craft and create their own paths to a happy life. They are no cry-babies no more! They have leveraged their situation and engaged in activities to promote self-belief, self-preservation and self-determination. They have harnessed their agency and navigated the social contexts as they enhance their autonomy. This is in form of daily activities of life: dressing, housing, talents, expression, and productivity, commitment to work and how they appropriate resources around them. A study by Ayesiga (2019) raises important points . Mutual Aid Groups play a social Support role filling the gap of emotional growth as LGBTIQQ are faced with sexuality, gender and identity dysphoria and euphoria issues.   The report ” Invisible Scars” compiled by Elvis Herbert Ayesiga,...

Why is it possible for a Black people to look the other way, witness, tolerate, accommodate or engage in what is known as "Black on Black" hate crimes and mostly do nothing about it? There are some answers to this rather loaded question: Historical Hegemonic Identity Perpetration: Many Black nations were colonies of European or Arab countries. The norm was as follows: un questioning deference was expected from Blacks in the presence or absence of Colonists (Whites and Asians). These ones made sure that they let it be known that anything Black was backward, Satanic and inferior. Blacks were paid as long as they maintained and ensured deference to Whites and Asians. When the African nations gained independence, systems remained that ensured this deference was perpetuated overtly and covertly. At the top position of the totem pole is: White, Heterosexual Male and the rest fall in line. The Black Person is at the last rung, the Black Homosexual is way down ...

When planning interventions targeting KP, one has to have in mind the need to address effects of latency that arise due to either disownment by parents or a history of being subjected to traumatic abuses. KP, are prone to have trauma comorbidities. In an article  " From Frying Pan To Fire: African Key Populations (KP) In A Dilemma When Provider Bias Stands In The way To Reporting IPV abuse; A Case Of Three African Cities ," Muyunga-Mukasa (2019), makes many insightful findings in Kampala, Mbarara and Nairobi that inform KP-targeting Programmatic Interventions. In the article, he argues that the contexts within which KP grow, develop, socialize and actualize have profound influence on how they turn out in life, how they go into and maintain relationships. In the article, he points out the role of seeking social services to improve quality of life and the role of Providers as decision support catalysts.  The environment has a profound influence on emotional growth which i...

Catholic bishops in Kenya have applauded a court ruling that keeps homosexuality criminalized in that nation, reports Robert Shine of New Ways Ministry on July 14, 2019. Three judges on Kenya’s High Court declined to repeal laws criminalizing homosexuality, which carry sentences of up to 14 years imprisonment. To do so, they said, would defy both societal values and the spirit of the nation’s Constitution which explicitly endorses heterosexual norms. Legalizing homosexuality was part of, in their words, “foreign doctrines.”  SDE   reported on Catholic bishops’ response: “[Nairobi’s] John Cardinal Njue of the Catholic Church said the homosexual agenda was being pushed by foreign forces, reiterating that God created Adam and Eve. . . “Bishop Alfred Rotich of the Catholic Church said it was God’s wisdom that guided the judges in making the decision to uphold what the church believes is the true foundation of families. “‘We are happy this has come to pass. Our so...

A Baobab tree under which we shall sit, chewing into the roast maize, sipping from the gourd, whose contents are an apothecary of the Divine, the elephants urine mixed with the Buffalo’s dung, goat's milk and the warm blood from a nursing cow, the valleys we have crossed and more yet to be, ' everyone dressed in an attire of dignity,' a court judge obsessed with legislating physiology, a police officer enforcing uniformity, a Bible-quoting Christian the epitome of integrity, prescribing bleach for HIV cures, impregnating the house-maid, has an out-of wedlock child, yet to pay child-support, vehemently preaches the un-Africanness of homosexuality, a Seville-Row attired, Oxford graduate African politician, dormed in palaces with perimeter walls, guarded 24/7 and 365 days, presides over the skimming of a country's minerals, the citizenry bedraggled starving masses, whom when they raise a voice of protest, are mauled by tanks and guns,...