Kenya police on Friday arrested five suspected homosexuals in a coastal resort town after hundreds of residents protested over a planned gay wedding.
A police official said two of the men had been found with wedding rings, attempting to get married, in the Kikambala beach resort, according to the BBC.
The other three men were handed to the police by members of the public; two of them had reportedly been beaten.
Crowds gathered outside the police station where the men were taken into custody, and continued to protest the presence of alleged homosexuals.
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The wedding was reportedly due to take place at a private villa in the resort, but locals heard of the plans and alerted the police, who raided a house and arrested the men.
“We are grateful to the public for alerting the police. They should continue co-operating with the police to arrest more,” according to George Matandura, a police official.
“It is an offense, an unnatural offense, and also their behavior is repugnant to the morality of the people,” he added.
Matundura said the five — aged between 20 and 35 — will “undergo a medical examination before we charge them with homosexuality.”
A member of a Kenyan gay rights organization condemned the arrests and said it had appealed to the Human Rights Commission to step in.
On Thursday, two other men abandoned their plans to get married at a seaside villa in the same area; the couple and their guests fled when word spread that the police and members of the public were looking for them.
Apart from in South Africa, homosexuality is illegal across Africa.
