[1/5] Participants react with Pride rainbow flags as they attend the Badilika festival to celebrate the LGBT rights in Nairobi, Kenya, June 11, 2023. Some regional lawmakers frame the issue as an almost existential battle to save African values and sovereignty, which they say have been battered by Western pressure to capitulate on gay rights. Spokespeople for the Kenyan presidency and government didn't respond to requests for comment about the proposed bill. Several called for legislation to strengthen penalties for same-sex acts, including the deputy majority leader, who said gay sex could be punished by hanging. President William Ruto, an evangelical Christian, has criticized a February supreme court decision allowing an LGBT rights group to register as a non-governmental organization.

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Persons: Mohamed Ali doesn't, Ali, Weeks, Bill, Yoweri Museveni, Annette Atieno, John Agany, Jacqueline Ngonyani, Ngonyani, Damas Ndumbaro, William Ruto, Peter Kaluma, Uganda's, Kaluma, U.S . State Department didn't, Stella Kachina, Marylize Biubwa, Lorna Dias, Dias, Nuzulack Dausen, Waakhe Simon Wudu, Daphne Psaledakis, Estelle Shirbon, Aaron Ross, Pravin Organizations: REUTERS, Reuters, Kenyan, National Gay, Human Rights Commission, U.S . State Department, East, NAIROBI PRIDE, Gay and Lesbian Coalition of, Thomson Locations: Nairobi, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, NAIROBI, East Africa, Juba, United, Africa, Entebbe, Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya, Ruto, Dar es, Washington