President Obama had emphasised the need for the government to uphold the rights of homosexuals despite there being different opinions about the practice/PSCU
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 25 – President Uhuru Kenyatta says Kenya will not embrace homosexuality due to deep rooted culture even as visiting US President Barack Obama warned against discrimination.
President Kenyatta was responding to concerns on the need to respect everyone’s rights whether they are gays or lesbians.
“The fact of the matter is that Kenya and the United States share so many values. Our love for democracy, entrepreneurship, value for families, these are things that we share. But we must admit that these are things that we do not share. Our cultures, our societies do not accept some things. It is very difficult to impose on people that which they do not accept,” he stated.
President Obama had emphasised the need for the government to uphold the rights of homosexuals despite there being different opinions about the practice.
He stated that many of the gay people were law abiding citizens and that there was no reason whatsoever to discriminate them.
“I believe in the principal of treating people equally under the law and that they are deserving of equal protection under the law and that the State should not discriminate against them based on their sexual orientation. I say that recognising that there may be people who have different religious or cultural beliefs but the issue is how does the State operate relative to people?” Obama indicated.
He stated that many of the gay people were law abiding citizens and that there was no reason whatsoever to discriminate them.
“If somebody is a law abiding citizen who is going about their businesses, working in their jobs, obeying the traffic signs and doing the other things that good citizens do and not harming anybody, the idea that they are going to be treated differently or abused because of who they love is wrong ” he stated.
He explained that when people are treated differently because of their sexual orientation, this curtails their other freedoms which have to be protected.
“If you look at the history of countries around the world, when you start treating people differently, not because of any harm they are doing anybody but because they are different, that is the path whereby freedoms begin to erode and bad things happen and when a government gets into the habit of treating people differently, those habits can spread,” he said.
“As an African American of the United States, I am painfully aware of what can happen when people are treated differently under the law and all sorts of rationalisation provided by the power structure for decades and they were wrong.”
Prior to Obama’s visit to Kenya, hundreds of protestors poured into the streets of Nairobi in an anti-gay march attended by politicians, the church and members of the civil society organizations.
The protestors had placards warned Obama who traces his roots in Kenya not to push the gay agenda while on his visit.
The protesters chanted anti-gay slogans and condemned the Supreme Court for allowing the registration of a gay rights organisation.
The protest comes after the US legalized same sex marriages raising fears that Obama may front such agenda during his visit.
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