Chinese stir-fry sizzles on the stove and lively conversation crackles between the three friends gathered round a table on a moonlit night in Nairobi. It?s a run-of-the-mill dinner party but many Kenyans would say it is not a typical one.

?I?m not afraid, but I?m not going to tell someone, ?hey, I?m gay?,? says Alex, 31, a marketing consultant.

Stirring coconut milk into rice cooking on a glass-topped stove, Alex, who comes from a conservative Muslim background, says there are not many places to meet gay people and talks excitedly about wanting to open a gays-only bar.

?It?s more like gay death, not gay life in Nairobi.? The three friends eating in the tiny kitchen are members of an unrecognised and stigmatised minority in Kenya. Keeping a low profile is their way of handling the isolation.

Homosexuality is outlawed in many African countries, including Kenya, and is often condemned as being «un-African» - a ?disease? imported from the West. In some traditional beliefs, homosexuals are said to be cursed or bewitched. ?Kenya has no room for homosexuals and lesbians.?

African bishops led by Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola mutinied last year over the issue of gay Anglican clergymen.

Only South Africa, whose constitution was the world?s first to enshrine equal rights for gays and lesbians, bucks the trend. In December, its top court ruled it was unconstitutional to deny gays and lesbians the right to marry, paving the way for it to become the first African country to legalise same-sex marriage.