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Kenya’s Religious Leaders Decry “persistent, well-funded attempts” to Legalize LGBTQ

Logo Kenya Christian Professionals Forum (KCPF). Credit: KCPF

Representatives of faith-based entities in Kenya have, in a petition, deed “persistent and well-financede attempts” to to legalize Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) practices in the East African nation. 

In their petition delivered to Parliament on Thursday, February 1, the Religious leaders drawn from the Kenya Christians Professional Forum (KCPF), the Council of Preachers and Imams of Kenya (CIPK), and Christ is the Answer Ministries (CITAM), among others, call upon Kenyan Members of Parliament (MPs) to take action. 

“In the past ten years, we have witnessed persistent, well-choreographed, and well-financed/funded attempts by persons identifying themselves as representing homosexuals, or more precisely Lesbians, Gay, Bisexuals, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ), to have laws prohibiting homosexuality and other unnatural acts impugned or declared unconstitutional. They have filed numerous court cases and petitions in our courts,” they say.

They add, “The common thread through all these attempts throughout the world has been their claims that their rights and freedoms have been violated through discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. These two terminologies are alien not just to the African but to anyone with a moral fiber in their being.”

The petitioners go on to fault “concerted efforts from foreign non-state actors through financial lobbying to effect changes to our penal law in order to decriminalize such acts long criminalized such as homosexuality.”

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“This is the beginning of a slippery slope from which the country may not recover from if left unattended,” the representatives of Kenya’s religious leaders say in their petition presented to Kenyan MPs on February 1.

In the petition, they also decry the “ongoing aggressive public recruitment into the LGBTQ agenda.”

“There are scores of seemingly harmless programs across campuses and institutions of higher learning couched as caucuses on sexual freedoms and minority rights. These are inoculation and breeding grounds for the LGBTQ agenda,” the Religious leaders say.

They note that Kenya’s education curriculum has been infiltrated by the LGBTQ agenda. 

“The agenda is being pushed in books and study material,” Kenya’s Religious leader say, citing “one of the Grade 4 books” that they say have “subtle depiction of gay relationships.” This, they add, “is an affront on future generations and seeks to further confuse and mislead our young children.”

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The Religious leaders also find it regrettable that “international basic education curricula have also taken the form of open access to LGBTQ material.”

They want lawmakers to investigate publishers and book distributors of the offensive material “as a matter of urgency”, and add, “Urgent action must be taken by Parliament to ensure that all Kenyan children studying a variety of international curricula are not swayed by this infiltration.”

“Unless Parliament intervenes and has these activities nipped in the bud, the moral decay we have seen over the last couple of years will continue to dizzying levels,” representatives of Religious leaders in Kenya say. 

They call upon Kenyan MPs to exercise their oversight role, ensuring the Cabinet Secretaries of Education, Health, Foreign Affairs, and Labour and Social Protection, and the Inspector General of Police confirm the measures they are taking on “sneaking of the LGBTQ agenda into the Kenyan and International curriculum offered in Kenya.”

The Religious leaders add that the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection should be tasked to explain its “plans to safeguard the family from such erosive influences.”

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In their petition, the Religious leaders also call upon Kenyan MPs to fast-track the discussion and passage of the Family Protection Bill (Kaluma Bill), which the MP for Homa Bay Town, Hon. Peter Opondo Kaluma, sponsored.

Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.