Opinion: We should stop living a lie on human rights

President Uhuru Kenyatta

Something caught my imagination last week. In a church bulletin, I came across a forward by my pastor in which he praised President Uhuru Kenyatta’s showing at a TV interview hosted by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on April 20.

The church was elated that the President had stood firm against homosexuality. “And my, wasn’t I proud of my President,” Pastor Paul Habwe wrote.

 It was the second time the President was dismissing discussions around gay rights. In 2015 at a press conference with then American President Barack Obama, he termed the matter a non-issue.

The pastor’s message made me appreciate the consistency with which Christians and society at large abhor same sex relationships. Kenya is among the 37 countries in Africa that have criminalised homosexual acts.

According to the Pew Global Attitudes Project (2007), 97 per cent of citizens, a pretty high number, believe homosexuality is a way of life that society must admonish.

Churches and leaders never shy from publicly denouncing the clamour for LGBT rights. It is a taboo and an issue repugnant to cultural values and morality, they say.

But while at it, I asked myself why well-meaning people would detest some vices with decisiveness and others with a carefree attitude. Where do we get the moral authority to condemn people because of their sexual orientation when graft and other social ills have eaten us up to the core?

While I don’t have a keen interest in LGBT issues, I share the view that citizens who contribute to nation building and who obey the law shouldn’t be judged for what they are in their private lives. Progressive societies take basic human rights seriously.

Many countries abhor homosexuality but thrive on nauseating social ills. Surprisingly, voices opposed to homosexuals hardly condemn other ills in society with the same vigour.

When discussions arise on extrajudicial killings in Kenya, they mellow out. It’s called hypocrisy.

It smacks of dishonesty of the highest order. Plainly put, we are a nation trying to hold on to our own perceptions of reality, when in fact we are simply avoiding the truth. Religious leaders and their version of the truth remain too far off and this is a dangerous trend.

Fact is Kenya has become a paradise of impunity. From theft of public funds, toxicity of our politics, tribalism, sham elections, unresolved historical injustices to basic things like traffic rules, we care less about the rule of law, the more reason we should let gays be.

 A country where each election is comparable to civil war has no business bullying homosexuals.  

How many high-profile graft suspects have we nailed? None. Instead, we celebrate and reward people who steal from our coffers. We could be slowly losing our souls. I am not a pessimist but a society that doesn’t respect the rule of law is doomed to fail in every aspect. When this happens, the society eats its own future.

The way I see it, lawless Kenyans wouldn’t exist if there was no demand for lawlessness in our midst. Even if we switch off TV signals and treat journalists with disdain, cries for equity and social justice will be too loud to ignore someday.

Three days ago, I came across a tweet in which a worried Kenyan raised the spectre of apathy towards flood victims.

More than 50 years after independence, our capital city isn’t navigable whenever it rains. Statues and moments are dilapidated, traffic lights dysfunctional while gangs hold sway in every major town.

We can’t even fix our public transport system. We gloss over serious issues which will erupt someday. It’s time we put our acts together.