Ashley Lime
BBC News, Nairobi

Image source, James Wakibia/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

A proposed anti-gay bill in Kenya wants gays and lesbians jailed for 50 years for non-consensual sex.

Dubbed the Family Protection Bill 2023, the draft law sponsored by Homa Bay Town legislator Peter Kaluma, is recommending a ban on homosexuality, same-sex unions and any LGBTQ activities and campaigns.

It also seeks to prohibit gay parades, assemblies and marches on streets, and cross-dressing in public.

“A person who engages in sexual act with a person of the same sex without the consent of the other person shall upon conviction be sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than 10 years and not exceeding 50 years,” says the bill.

Owners of premises used for same-sex relations will pay a fine of $14,000 (£11,000) or face a jail term of seven years if the bill goes through.

Gay sex is already illegal in Kenya, but the government can also be tolerant of gay people - for example, it has given asylum to people from other African countries, including Uganda, who faced persecution in their home countries because of their sexual orientation.

Last week, clerics and some civil society organisation groups held anti-LGBTQ protests in the coastal city of Mombasa.

This followed a re-enforcement by Kenya’s Supreme Court of a decision in mid-September to allow the registration of LGBTQ non-governmental organisations.

Kenya’s NGO Coordinating Board had declined to register the National Gay and Lesbian Rights Commission, saying it “promotes same-sex behaviour”, dragging the case for a decade.

The Supreme Court early this year deemed the move discriminatory and unconstitutional hence allowing LGBTQ organisations to register in a landmark ruling.

More on this topic:

• Will Kenya be the latest African country to pass anti-gay law?

South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt says making international men's and women's match fees equal is "a very exciting step forward".

Image source, Getty Images

Nigerian artist Burna Boy has postponed a live concert scheduled for this weekend in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The show, which was booked at the 90,000-capacity FNB Stadium, will now be held on 16 December, the event’s ticketing agency said.

Ticket Pro said the gig was being delayed because of a "lack of ticket" sales, among other reasons.

But Burna Boy’s management company, Spaceship, is quoted by Nigerian media as blaming the concert’s promoters for not fulfilling their "contractual, financial, production and technical obligations".

It said that the ticketing companies should ensure that ticketholders were fully refunded.

"Sadly, it is with great regret that we must inform you that, despite my team’s effort, the show in Johannesburg... will be cancelled," the Punch newspaper quotes the management company as saying in a statement.

“Production vendors have still not been paid and as such, it is evident at this point that the agreed production standard needed for this venue size cannot be achieved.

“Deepest apologies to all fans, looking forward to seeing you all soon."

The Newsroom
BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

The European Union (EU) has confirmed it's temporarily frozen payments to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) for deliveries of humanitarian aid to Somalia.

A spokesman for the European Commission, Balazs Ujvari, said the move was a precautionary measure to safeguard EU funds.

A UN investigation has identified widespread theft of aid intended for vulnerable Somali people, with local officials, members of the security forces and humanitarian workers all involved.

Last year, the EU spent more than $7m (£5.6m) on WFP operations in Somalia.

The US agency for international development says it is not currently planning to suspend food aid to Somalia.

Chris Ewokor
BBC News, Abuja

Image source, AFP

Two losing presidential candidates, from Nigeria’s main opposition parties, have gone to the Supreme Court to challenge the dismissal of their cases against the victory of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as president in February's election.

An election petition tribunal ruled in a unanimous decision earlier this month that both the Labour Party's Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party failed to prove that the election was flawed.

The tribunal declared that the politicians could not establish the allegations of over-voting and voter suppression. The judges also said there was not enough evidence the support the cases.

Mr Abubakar is asking the Supreme Court to nullify the judgement, saying it occasioned “grave error and miscarriage of justice” by upholding Mr Tinubu's victory.

Through his lawyer, Mr Abubakar also faulted the court’s use of “disparaging words”, which he said “evinced bias”.

In a similar move, Mr Obi noted that the election court overlooked the facts in his case and failed to consider the weight of evidence he presented, thereby arriving at the wrong conclusion.

No date has been fixed for the hearing of the cases.

Youssef Taha
BBC World Service newsroom

Image source, Nahla Elseidy/Facebook

A student from Guinea has had his life-long dream of studying at Al-Azhar University in Cairo come true.

Mamadou Safayou Barry did not have the funds to study at the ancient university, so set off on his bicycle to Egypt - a journey of well over 4,000km (2,500 miles).

He is said to have cycled for months through Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin and Niger and Chad.

While in Chad four months later, good Samaritans paid for him to fly the rest of the way to Cairo.

His determination prompted the university to offer him a place on its Islamic Studies course with a full scholarship.

Mr Barry said he was overjoyed to be studying at the prestigious university.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

A court in Nigeria has granted bail to 69 people who were arrested last month after a raid on what the police described as a "gay wedding".

Like in most African countries homosexuality is widely viewed as immoral in Nigeria.

The country has strict laws against same-sex marriage.

A defence lawyer said his 69 clients would all be released on bail but first had to hand over to the court the equivalent of more than $600 (£480) each.

Last month's raid on a hotel in the city of Warri followed what the police said was a tip-off about a gay wedding.

Human Rights Watch criticised the Nigerian police for publicly parading the suspects before the media and interrogating them about the accusations.

Despite international condemnation, legislation was passed just under a decade ago criminalising public displays of same-sex relationships with a prison sentence of up to 10 years and up to 14 years for anyone convicted of same-sex marriage.

In 2019 police in Lagos State prosecuted 47 men under the law but the court dismissed the case because the police failed to appear and present witnesses.

Baby seals caught up in fishing nets are rescued on a South African beach.

Image source, Reuters

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame has said he will run for a fourth term in next year's presidential election.

“Yes, I am indeed a candidate,” Mr Kagame told French-language magazine Jeune Afrique on Tuesday., external

Asked about what the West would think about his decision to run again, Mr Kagame said, "I'm sorry for the West, but what the West thinks is not my problem.

"I am happy with the confidence that the Rwandans have in me. I will always serve them, as much when I can."

Mr Kagame had joked in April that he was looking forward to retiring and handing over power after 23 years in office.

The country's ruling party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF-Inkotanyi), retained Mr Kagame as its chairman in April. He has led the party since 1998.

Mr Kagame has been president of the East African nation since 2000.

A controversial referendum in 2015 replaced a constitutional limit of two seven-year terms for presidents with two five-year terms. But it allowed Mr Kagame to run for another seven-year term and said the changes would come into effect in 2024.

He won the last election in 2017 with 98.8% of the vote.

Rwanda under President Kagame has enjoyed relative political stability but critics and human rights groups accuse his government of limiting political freedoms and suppressing dissent.

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Quobna Cugoano was captured by slavers aged 13 but later played a big part in the UK abolition movement.

The African nation has been partially suspended following a coup that took place in late August.

That's all for now from the BBC Africa Live team - we'll be back on Wednesday morning.

There will be an automated news feed here until then, plus you can get the latest updates at BBCAfrica.com and find out about stories behind the news on the Focus on Africa podcast.

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And we leave you with this image of a journalist standing inside a destroyed building in Derna earlier on Tuesday, as the authorities announced a ban on reporters in the city devastated by floods.

Image source, Reuters

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Police in Nigeria say five officers have been killed during an attack in Imo state in the south-east of the country.

Separatists in the area have frequently targeted police stations and government buildings.

The authorities have blamed the banned group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) for most of the attacks. But the group has not commented.

Ipob has been campaigning for the Igbo people of south-eastern Nigeria to have their own independent country.

Local media reports say at least eight people were killed in the latest violence, including soldiers and members of Nigeria's Civil Defence Corps - a paramilitary agency.

Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

Image source, Getty Images

More than half of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 in Mozambique’s troubled Cabo Delgado province have already been pregnant, according to a study by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

Rampant insecurity is a fact of life for people living in the region, rich in oil, gas and rubies, that has suffered under a six-year jihadist insurgency.

The violence has forced more than one million people from their home, left 4,000 dead, and destroyed almost 200 schools.

Pregnant girls had previously been barred from going to school but Cabo Delgado's education director Ivaldo Quincardete says this was later changed amid concerns over literacy levels. As many as 70% of women there cannot read or write.

He says the latest data is worrying and yet "another indication of the enormous challenge facing the province".

Four in 10 girls in Mozambique, according to a government official, get married by the age of 18.

Derna's mayor is targeted a week after devastating floods many residents blame on incompetence.

Thomas Naadi
BBC News, Accra

Police in Ghana have confirmed that five people are being charged in connection with organising a rally last month in support of the Russian mercenary group Wagner.

The small gathering took place in the south-western city of Takoradi on Sunday 13 August, which was 10 days before the death of Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash.

Witnesses told the BBC those attending wore Wagner mercenary-branded shirts and flew Russian flags.

Wagner has had a strong presence in several African countries in recent years - in particular in the Central African Republic (CAR), Libya and Mali.

Those arrested for organising the event are to face trial next month, but police are yet to say exactly what charges they will face.

Yūsuf Akínpẹ̀lú
BBC News, Lagos

Image source, @iammohbad

The Lagos state government has invited Nigeria’s secret police to join an investigation into the death of Afrobeats star MohBad.

The 27-year-old singer, whose real name was Ilerioluwa Aloba, died a week ago in hospital in Lagos. A source told Nigeria’s Punch newspaper, external the musician had sought treatment for an infected injury - but this has not been confirmed and the exact circumstances have not been made public.

The news of his death last Tuesday shocked his fans and colleagues and the hashtag #justiceformohbad has been trending on X, formerly known as Twitter - with many calling for an investigation.

In some towns in the south fans have staged protests calling for justice.

Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has now stepped in, tweeting: "I have instructed that all those who may have played any role whatsoever in any event leading to the death of MohBad be made to face the law after a thorough investigation."

The regional police also announced a 13-person special investigative team to exhume the body of the Afropop singer and carry out an autopsy.

With emotions running high, some tributes have suggested the singer had been bullied within the music industry.

Outrage has particularly been directed at his former boss, Naira Marley, with whom he had feuded after he split from the Nigerian musician’s label - Marlian Records - last year.

It has led one of the biggest radio stations in south-western Nigeria, SplashFM, to ban Marley's songs from the airwaves during the investigation.

Marley himself has also called for a thorough probe into MohBad’s death and pledged to assist with "uncovering any foul play or injustice".

Image source, AFP

A man who lived near one of two dams that burst during Storm Daniel releasing a tsunami-like surge of water on to the Libyan city of Derna last week says residents had been demanding repairs for several years.

"Two years ago, the big dam already had leaks, even though it was only half-full," 48-year-old Abdelqader al-Omrani told the AFP news agency.

"We had warned the municipality and demanded repairs."

Mr Omrani spoke to AFP from his hospital bed in the city of Benghazi, where he has been taken after surviving the floods that killed six of his relatives.

He managed to escape the rising water by fleeing to his roof terrace, then climbing on to a tree and up a mountain slope.

He described how when the waters began to recede from his hometown, there were "no buildings, no trees, only the mountain and no living soul".

"I experienced the apocalypse, without exaggeration."

He told AFP the local authorities now had “deaths on their conscience".

More on this topic:

• Libya floods: Why damage to Derna was so catastrophic

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

At least 1,200 children in refugee camps in Sudan have died since May because of measles and malnutrition, the UN children's agency (Unicef) says.

Many thousands more, including new-borns, are at risk of death before the end of the year, it says.

More than 50,000 children require treatment for the most lethal form of malnutrition every month in Sudan.

But Unicef says the war has forced a number of feeding centres to close.

The UN refugee agency says many of the children dying in the refugee camps have fled wars in South Sudan and Ethiopia.