A gay rights campaigner filed a case in Kenya's High Court calling for the decriminalization of gay sex, which is punishable by 14 years in jail in the conservative east African nation.

Eric Gitari, who heads the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, asked the court to strike out sections of the Penal Code criminalizing gay sex because, he says, they violate constitutional rights to equality, dignity and privacy.

The law makes "carnal knowledge... against the order of nature" a crime attracting a 14 year sentence while "gross indecency with another male" is punishable by five years in jail.