A GAY rugby player the Home Office tried to deport to Kenya despite fears he would be persecuted because of his sexuality has won a five-battle for his right to stay in Britain.

Ken Macharia, of the Bristol Bisons Rugby Football Club, first came to Britain in 2009 as a student and stayed in the country as a qualified mechanical engineer by renewing his work permits.

Fearing the prospect of returning to Kenya, where being homosexual is not a criminal offence but the country’s penal code, which it inherited from British colonial rule, does criminalise gay sex, Macharia decided to apply for asylum.