Culture wars, Kenya-style

The belief that homosexuals are inherently immoral has made its way across the Atlantic to our fair land. Charles Kanjama, a candidate for the chairmanship of the Law Society of Kenya, argues that there is something wrong with embracing the gay agenda; that each nation should be free to discriminate (or not discriminate) against The Gay Agenda and its advocates. Calestous Juma, a Kenyan scientist living in the United States, argues that discriminatory laws can be used even against those they are supposedly meant to protect.

Kenya is going through an intense process in the implementation of its progressive constitution. It is becoming increasingly apparent that different communities of interests have different agendas. There are those that would love to have the constitution implemented in full; there are those who would love to see the process slow-rolled as we "work out the kinks in the document;" there still others who like to see the whole thing shelved "until Kenyans are ready."

It is in the context of the implementation of the constitution that Kenyans are asked to debate whether or not the law should be amended to decriminalise homosexual acts; to protect homosexuals from discrimination; and to recognise their "rights" to healthcare, safety, adoption of children, marriage, and so on and so forth. The argument is being framed as being an unwarranted assault on our sovereignty as a nation to determine what is and what is not suitable for the peoples of Kenya against the obligations of a free society to permit individuals the widest liberties without infringing on the rights of others. It is being framed, too, as a moral battle between those who would still believe that homosexuality is a path to great moral decline while there are those who argue that what happens between two consenting adults behind closed doors and shut curtains is no business of yours or mine.

Despite what the various advocates for one side or the other argue, the constitution forms the foundation of the laws that we will enact, revise or repeal. It is not enough to blithely declare that the people will determine whether to "permit" or not the Gay Agenda; it must be declared in the context of whether the constitution prevails. If we are to ignore the provisions on non-discrimination and equality, we must do so honestly. We should not dissemble. We should tell all Kenyans that we do not believe that the Bill of Rights should be read as it has been drafted. We must tell them that we will pick and choose who will enjoy protections under the Bill of Rights and who will not. We must make it explicit that homosexual acts and homosexual persons do not deserve the protection of the constitution, that it is our solemn responsibility to not only make it impossible for them to be who they claim to be, but we must find a way of re-engineering their psyches and suppressing their immoral, perverted urges.

If the constitutions prevails, however, then the purveyors of such hate-filled religious bigotry must be put in their place. They may promote their hate-mongering in the name of protecting the institution of marriage, in protecting the children, in protecting Kenyans from immoral and corruptive influences, and generally, ensuring that the bulk of all right-thinking Kenyans will find itself on the way to heaven when the day of judgment is upon us. Whether we will admit it today or not, the breadth of individual liberties in the constitution implies that the State, and all its agencies, are no longer welcome in my bedroom. Or bathroom. Or home. If they think I'm unfit to look after my child, they can only prove it in the courts. If they think that my neighbour three doors down is a pederast of the worst kind, it is the courts that will settle the matter and I can then shun the little perv.

It is the institution of the constitution and the rule of law that must determine whether or not Kenyans will one day marry whom they want and adopt children when these children have no one else. But when you have leading lights of the Law Society asking for Kenyans to set aside the provisions of the constitution on equality and non-discrimination, and instead, discriminate actively against fellow-Kenyans because they "worship at another church" it is only a matter of time before we decide that we really didn't mean for women, children and the vulnerable to be protected by the constitution, or that environmental rights are the wild imaginations of tree-huggers of the Committee of Experts. They came for The Gay, and I did nothing...