Charity group says anti-gay law could cost taxpayers $7.8bn per year

Some of the Mombasa residents who turned up at Makadara Grounds in Mombasa County on September 15, 2023, during an anti-LGBTQ campaign. [File, Standard]

A proposed anti-gay law in Kenya could cost the country up to $7.8 billion per year, a charity said Wednesday in a report on the economic impact of discrimination in East Africa.

Open for Business, a Britain-based charity that calculates the economic fall-out from discrimination against LGBTQ people, said Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda were already losing up to $5 billion per year due to anti-gay discrimination.

Gay sex is already a crime in Kenya under a colonial-era law, but it is rarely enforced and the country has been a relative haven for LGBTQ individuals in the region.

But there is still considerable stigma and discrimination, increasingly fomented by religious leaders and populist politicians.

A draft Family Protection Bill has called for harsh punishments, including up to 50 years in jail for gay relations, though it has yet to be debated in parliament.

Open for Business said the law could increase costs to Kenya by between $2.7 billion and $7.8 billion annually due to lost World Bank funding, foreign direct investment and tourism, as well as increased health costs from depression and HIV treatment disparities, among other issues.

Discrimination against LGBTQ individuals was already costing Kenya between $360 million and $1.5 billion per year, it said.

The World Bank froze lending to Uganda after it passed the Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2023, one of the harshest anti-gay laws in the world with penalties including life imprisonment for consensual same-sex relations and the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality".

Open for Business said Uganda was losing between $586 million and $2.4 billion per year as a result of anti-LGBTQ discrimination.

Its report also looked at neighbouring Tanzania, which it said was losing up to $1.1 billion per year, and Rwanda, among the least discriminatory in the region but still losing up to $45 million annually.

"Anti-LGBTQ+ laws harm a country's investment prospects, damage their global reputation and prevent business from attracting the very best in global talent," said Open for Business chairman Dominic Arnall in the report.

"We hope the report will provide leaders from business, civil society and government with the evidence they need to make their own case for inclusion, not just for LGBTQ+ populations who are in urgent need of respite, but for all East Africans who deserve a bright and prosperous future," he said.