Planned Youth Chastity Conference in Kenya to Address “homosexual orientations”

“We will raise the issue of whether same sex is natural or it is out of socialization,” Kakeeto said, adding that the sessions will see facilitators guide participants in probing “the common pattern among people living with same sex attraction.”

Guided discussions around the background of people with same orientations will be conducted, facilitators and participants probing whether or not such people “have a history of abuse and dysfunction in their families so that we understand where this attraction is from,” he said.

After the conference, Kakeeto said, “Young people could be able to introspect and figure out that maybe I feel like this because of something else then they figure out how they can get help.”

The conference which targets high school and university students is usually held the Saturday just before or on Valentine’s day, Kakeeto disclosed.

He explained, “In this country, when you read the newspapers around Valentine’s day, so many articles are released, showing young people who are involved in orgies and all that. We choose to do it at that time to show that it is possible to enjoy a chaste valentine.”

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Kakeeto further shared the general theme of the annual youth chastity conferences saying, “there are quite a number of young people in the Universities who are both virgins and chaste but get stigmatized by the environment they are in because of the increased sexualization of our young people.”

Chastity, known to be the virtue of abstaining from sexual intercourse, whether within or outside marriage, is “largely unknown word limited to religious communities,” Kakeeto observed.

For this reason, Kakeeto said referencing the overall theme of the annual conferences that have been organized five times previously, “we decided to start pulling together young people and promote this virtue of chastity.”

Previous conferences have been a success judging by how high school students are relating to chastity than before, he noted.

“Many times, people used to respond to HIV/AIDS with the word abstinence but now, young people respond with chastity as the word, so that is progress,” Kakeeto said and added, “At least you can find it (chastity) on the lips of high school students, which never used to be the case.”

Organised by CUEA in collaboration with Vita et Familia, CitizenGo and Franciscan Agencies, a social enterprise that supports youth ministry, participants are expected to pay Kshs. 100 (1US$) are registration fee.

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.