Examining the Role and Influence of Local and Transnational Anti-LGBTIQ+ Actors on Laws and Policies in Kenya, Uganda, and Ghana

Abstract

This thesis examines how local and transnational anti-LGBTIQ+ actors influence laws and governance structures in Kenya, Uganda, and Ghana. Drawing on document analysis and theoretical frameworks including postcolonial theory, transnational advocacy networks, and vernacularization, it reveals how these actors co-produce political homophobia as a governance strategy. The research finds that transnational actors provide financial resources, ideological frameworks, and legitimizing narratives, while local actors in transnational movements adapt these into culturally resonant forms. Their collaborative actions have expanded colonial-era restrictions into comprehensive systems of criminalization framed paradoxically as resistance to Western imperialism. Beyond LGBTIQ+ rights, these efforts establish precedents for restricting civil society, redefining sovereignty, and limiting rights protections more broadly. The study demonstrates that political homophobia functions not merely as cultural expression but as a governance mechanism with implications for democratic institutions, civil society independence, and human rights frameworks, within a system of authoritarian advancement masked as cultural authenticity.