Hey, you're listening to TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hugh. Certain outdated laws on the books in Kenya have put queer people into hiding there. But through creativity and connectivity, Kenyans have found a way to keep one another safe in his 22 talk from Ted Bezos Scholar Salon,

LGBTQ plus advocate Okongo Kenyanjui shows us how they did it by forging strong digital

communities. Hear that talk after the break.

One of the most evident remnants of colonialism on the African continent are laws that are used to persecute people for their sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.

I want to tell you about some sections of the penal code from my home country, Kenya.

Section 162A and C of the penal code say that it is a felony for any person to have

carnal knowledge of any other person against the order of nature or to permit a male person

to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature, and this is punishable

by 14 years imprisonment.

Section 165 of the Penal Code says that it's a felony for a male person to commit any act of gross indecency with another male person, whether in public or in private, and this is punishable by five years imprisonment.

Right now, similar laws also exist in 35 or 56 Commonwealth countries and more than 68 countries across the world.

These laws inform attacks, arbitrary arrests, and degrade queer people's right to privacy.

But they've done more than that.

They've created a culture of reporting on your friends, your neighbors, even your own family,

and just the suspicion of being queer can result in these life-threatening consequences.

So as you might imagine, under these

conditions, many queer people are constantly operating from a place of concern and fear about being

outed. And if we're all in hiding, then how can we mobilize around issues that impede our everyday lives

or share resources in times of need? How can we create a space where we can thrive? We hear a lot in the news

lately about social media and online platforms of spaces where serious harm can occur, but what I want

to share with you today is how social networks can be designed intentionally to build community

and trust from the ground up. And if they're built correctly, then they can help contact the fear that's been entrenched

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