Njeri is a Human Rights Lawyer and defender working for the National Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission in Kenya. Njeri’s organization has been at the centers of a case that has highlighted the struggle for equality and human rights for all people with a bias towards sexual and gender minorities. 

Njeri, through her organization access to justice through a free legal aid clinic for anyone who had been discriminated against or violated on the grounds of their SOGIE. Njeri also engages in strategic litigation and advocacy towards equality for LGBTIQ persons in Kenya.

The primary barrier against advocating for LBGTIQ in Kenya is equal access to rights under the current legal dispensation. Kenya still retains the colonial Penal Code that contains prohibitions on consensual adult same-sex intimacy in private. The public further confers ‘criminal’ to anyone perceived to be a sexual or gender minority due to the existence of this law. 

Njeri notes: “In the last two years, I have experienced a different kind and perhaps more terrifying aggressor in the form of a Social-Cultural outfit (the Council of Gikuyu Culture) who had issued numerous threats including death threats, surveillance and a physical/automotive attack”

Despite the legal and social barriers, Njeri has notched some impressive impacts through the commission. 

“In my time at NGLHRC, we have attended to over 6000 clients, trained over 1500 LGBTIQ paralegals, represented clients in over 450 cases, trained thousands of stakeholders across the governmental, private and civil society sector. NGLHRC has successfully litigated for registration of LGBTIQ organizations and ending forced anal examinations.”

Njeri’s work is essential and challenging, and she understands the formal and social costs of doing what she does, making her a worthy awardee.