Jubilation erupted in the courtroom as the decision was announced, and campaigners waved the rainbow flag of gay rights.
Under the country's 1965 penal code, homosexuality is punishable by a jail term of up to seven years.
But Judge Michael Elburu declared it was time to"set aside" the"provisions of a Victorian era" and ordered the laws be amended. In a courtroom packed with activists, the judge declared that the current laws oppressed a minority of the population."We say the time has come that private, same sexuality must be decriminalised."
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