Religious leaders petition Parliament over LGBTQ agenda in Kenya

A section of religious leaders drawn from the Christian and Muslim faith have presented a petition in Parliament pushing for an immediate inquiry into what they term as the proliferation of the LGBTQ agenda in the country.

The clergy claim that there has been a well-choreographed and well-financed plan to fight laws prohibiting homosexuality by persons purporting to represent the rights of the LGBTQ community. 

The religious leaders, who met Thursday morning in Nairobi, have also pledged their support for the Family Protection Bill 2023 sponsored by Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma, which seeks to ban LGBTQ-related activities and campaigns.

“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 fibre in their being,” lawyer Charles Kanjama said.

The petition that was signed by representatives from over 70 non-governmental and religious groups, states that there is a deliberate attempt by supporters of LGBTQ rights to have laws prohibiting homosexuality declared unconstitutional even as they criticised the Supreme Court ruling that upheld the freedom of association for the LGBTQ community.

“If this judgement is not remedied, there will be a drastic negative impact on the family in Kenya. It sets the pace for the legalization of same-sex unions in Kenya,” Kanjama stated.

They have thrown their weight behind the Family Protection Bill 2023 sponsored by Homa Bay Town legislator Peter Kaluma, which seeks to ban homosexuality, same-sex unions and LGBTQ activities.

“This Bill will, in summary, define who is a woman, who is a man what is sex, what is gender, what is male, what is female...so that nobody will struggle to define what a woman is,” MP Kaluma previously said.

Federation of Evangelical and. Indigenous Christian Churches of Kenya (FEICCK) Secretary  General David Thagana, on his part, said: “We would want to support the Kaluma Bill...many times we have been accused as churches of not speaking but when we speak our voice is not heard.”

“And I want to announce because we know that our detractors are hearing us we will fight you, we will oppose you because darkness is not the opposite of light it's the absence of light.”

The leaders have raised concern over alleged sneaking of LGBTQ agenda in study material used in the Kenyan curriculum and the international basic education curricula, singling out Grade 4 books which they claim contain content on gay relationships. 

In their petition, the religious leaders want Parliament to task the Cabinet Secretaries of Education, Health, Foreign Affairs, and Labour and Social Protection, and the Inspector General of Police to confirm the measures they are taking on; sneaking the LGBTQ agenda into the Kenyan and international curriculum, the Ministry of Health’s position on the definition of sexual health and rights, the proliferation of foreign actor funding and lobbying on LGBTQ matters as well as the enforcement of the provisions of the Penal Code that prohibit homosexual conduct in Kenya.