With the ruling, the country remains one of the more than 70 that criminalize gay sex.

Kenya’s High Court has ruled in favor of upholding the country’s ban on gay sex, which punishes the act with up to 21 years in prison.

Petitioners argued the colonial-era law violates Kenya’s 2010 constitution guaranteeing equality, dignity, and privacy for all citizens, and pointed to recent rulings decriminalizing gay sex by countries such as India, and Trinidad and Tobago.

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was delayed until May.

The court was unmoved by these arguments, claiming same-sex couples could carry out their sexual activities in private, without a need for a change in laws. It also claimed allowing for the decriminalization of sexual contact between people of the same sex would be akin to the defacto legalization of marriage equality, even though that right was not being requested by petitioners.

According to the Kenyan government, it has arrested 534 people for same-sex relationships between 2013 and 2017.

As a result of the ruling, Kenya remains one of more than 70 countries that still criminalizes gay sex.

At last year’s meeting of Commonwealth heads of state, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May said Britain regretted its anti-gay history and pushed for nations to change their archaic laws on the matter. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta responded by saying homosexuality is not a human rights issue, but one of “our own base as a culture.”