Oppose Comprehensive Sexuality Education Budgets: Kenyan Bishop to International MPs

In his presentation titled, “The influence of Geopolitical Development on our Education Efforts”, Bishop Kariuki underlined the place of education in society, saying, “Education should teach the minds, touch hearts and transform lives.”

“There is a geopolitics of education, which aims at coercing the developing countries to adopt the CSE, with no respect of religious and cultural sensitivities,” the Kenyan Catholic Bishop told ICLN members on August 27.

He cited Google, Microsoft, and American Express among others as international conglomerates that “use their relationship with the leading western powers to exert their influence especially on the global south.”

The conglomerates tap into the wanting economic situation of developing countries to manipulate and lobby political leaders and legislators into endorsing bad education programs, the Bishop who has been at the helm of Kenya’s Embu Diocese since his Episcopal Ordination in July 2009 said.

He explained, “Multinational and International organizations lobby and manipulate political leaders and policy makers by using their economic and political influence in developing countries."

More in Africa

Apostolic Nuncio Lauds Religious Institutes as “an invaluable component” of Church in South Sudan

Read the article

If education is to be value-based and serve the principle of the common good, Bishop Kariuki said, “it cannot be delivered or separated from the protection and promotion of family values, particularly parental authority.”

He said that despite the efforts of developing countries to resist introduction of CSE in schools, the push is intensified through funding by the global elites, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“What is worse is that these organizations have perfected the art of using the legislatures of these countries to entrench CSE in their country's education system,” the Chairman of CERE of KCCB said.

To counter such influence, he urged international legislators to respect and defend the sovereignty of other countries, especially African nations whose resources are normally exploited.

The 59-year-old Bishop also called upon legislators in developing countries to “curb corruption, looting and wastage of national and public resources.” 

He explained, “Corruption in developing countries is the root cause of high levels of poverty which opens the window for the global organizations and powerful countries to offer donations on their terms even on matters of education.”

Bishop Kariuki also challenged legislators in developing countries to “create policies that favour development of skills locally and industrialization in order to create jobs for the ever increasing young population.”

“Get involved in the selection of and influence who represents our countries at the international organizations where policies on education and other sectors are discussed and formulated,” the Kenyan Bishop said, addressing himself to members of parliament in developing countries.

In his August 25 address, Pope Francis urged the ICLN members to strive for “a more just, fraternal and peaceful world through legislative processes that promote the good of all and address situations of inequality in society.”

Focusing on justice, the Holy Father told the legislators, “Yours is the challenge of working to safeguard and enhance within the public sphere those right relationships that allow each person to be treated with the respect, and indeed the love, that is due to him or her."

(Story continues below)

Silas Mwale Isenjia is a Kenyan journalist with a great zeal and interest for Catholic Church related communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communication from Moi University in Kenya. Silas has vast experience in the Media production industry. He currently works as a Journalist for ACI Africa.