Gay rugby player in ordeal plea to Javid
A gay rugby player fighting deportation to Kenya has called on Home Secretary Sajid Javid to end his three - year-long ordeal in “limbo” by deciding his asylum case.
Ken Macharia has lived since May 2016 in fear of being sent back to the country where homosexual activity is ille - gal and can be punished with heavy jail sentences.
The mechanical engineer, who is on bail from an immigration removal centre, has been barred from working for almost a year while living in what he calls a “hostile environment” for asylum seekers.
Mr Macharia, a 39-year-old who plays forth e LGBTQ - inclusive Bristol Bisons RFC, is demanding that the Home Office rules on his asylum claim, as he copes with depression and anxiety.
He said: “He [Mr Javid] needs to sort things out and really show the UK does live up to what it claims to be as a country that protects human rights.
“He took over after the Windrush scandal and the Windrush scandal was because of the way the Home Office treated people badly, but it treats very many people badly and it has not changed since he took over. It has been business as usual.”
Mr Mach aria fears mob violence or blackmail in the east African country where the Foreign Office warns gay British travellers that holding hands or kissing in public could lead to imprisonment.
But the Government refuses asylum to the vast majority of Kenyans making claims on the basis of sexual orientation.
Lawyers and campaigners blamed a “culture of disbe - lief ” among Home Office case workers, who they say set an excessively high bar for asylum seekers to prove their cases.
The Home Office defended its “proud record” of giving asylum to those fleeing persecution because of their sexuality.
A petition to end the rugby player’s deportation has won more than 100,000 signatures, including Stephen Fry’s.
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said asylum delays are “a failure of this Government”.