The Culture Wars are the bread-and-butter of conservative politics in the United States. Railing against abortion, the assault on religion and the right of the people to bear all types of arms, conservatives in the US have made the Culture Wars the Rubicon of Republican politics and it is a brave Republican that goes against the grain to argue that the Culture Wars are a waste of time. Charles Kanjama, writing in The Standard on Sunday rails against the "war on morals" by the "inundation of the contraception campaign" (We should not lose the war against social immorality, 12 February 2012). He is correct to argue that there is an ongoing war in Kenyan society where hedonism and immorality are on the rise while traditional family values are being eroded at an alarming rate, but his prescription for the malaise is wrong-headed, and just plain wrong.
Social conservatives in Kenya warned against the moral risks of ratifying the proposed constitution in 2010. Their arguments failed to persuade a majority of voters and the proposed constitution was duly ratified in August 2010 and subsequent;y promulgated in a colourful ceremony televised internationally. 18 months later, no studies have been advanced to show that abortions have risen or that homosexuality has ensnared even more Kenyans than before. The proposal by the Mayor of Nairobi to legalise prostitution is now being used as a red herring to attempt to persuade Kenyans that the fears engendered by the Constitution are indeed real and coming to life as we sit idly by.
To take one strand in Mr Kanjama's proposition, that contraception is the bane of Kenya's social fabric, one must agree that contraception has led to greater levels of immorality and contributed to the breakdown of the family. One must turn a blind eye to the debilitating poverty and illiteracy of the people and the proliferation of media that promotes hedonism at the expense of moral and spiritual growth. Mr Kanjama, whom I must assume is a member of the Roman Catholic Church in Kenya, refuses to admit that the ability of families to plan when and how many children to have has liberated them to pursue interests and activities that will reduce poverty and increase their literacy levels. Before the advent of the condom and the pill, it was impossible for mothers to decide adequately when to have children, or even how many. That was the preserve of the husband and to that end many women were consigned t home-making roles only, denying them their rightful places in the workplace and as contributors to the national well-being. No one will deny that the millions of Kenyan women in the work place contribute to national development and that their voices are vital in shaping the destiny of this nation, whether for ill or for good. More girls are attending university than ever before and their education is vital to strengthening this country, more than all the prayers made at the alter of the No Condom Campaign.
The presence of homosexuals, prostitutes, rapists, child molesters, murderers, thieves, liars and cheats is not just down to the pro-contraception campaign or the pro-choice campaign advanced by non-governmental organisations with ties to foreign backers. Poverty and illiteracy have ensured that these moral problems continue to have a stranglehold on the lives of millions of Kenyans. Very few Kenyans wish to be associated with these sins, for that is what millions of Kenyan Christians see them as, and very few would wish to legalise homosexual relations or prostitution. But simply denying that their causes are not just psychological or spiritual but also environmental fails to admit that poverty and illiteracy are far greater moral sins than the aforementioned. The solutions proposed by the conservative culture warriors of Kenya fail to take into account their role in perpetuating the fraud that belief in God, and a rigid adherence to His Word, is all that is required to reverse the moral decline in this nation. What is needed is a robust programme, a campaign if you will, to lift the millions of Kenyans languishing in poverty and illiteracy out of their squalor and setting them on the path to a proud and successful nation.
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