'We will not legalize same-sex marriage' President Uhuru

Piece by: Queen Serem
Lifestyle

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Sunday said that Kenya will not bow to pressure to legislate same-sex marriages as a condition to receive donor funding.

Speaking in Nandi County, the President said that Kenya needs to become self-reliant in order to stop being pressured to put in place things that are not biblical.

We must ensure that our development is what we want and not that brought from outside. We should not be told that if we want money, we must legislate that a man can marry another

He then posed; "Is there anything of the sort in the Bible? Wouldn't we rather stay poor?"

Uhuru said that self-reliance would free Kenya to deal with what Kenyans believe in knowing that "we are standing on our own pocket."

This is why I have insisted, even though people are slightly angry at me, let us pay taxes. This is your money that we can use for our development and this is why I am also insisting that we must protect this money from wastage,

This is not the first time that Uhuru has dismissed gay rights as a non-issue for Kenya but it is the first that he has talked about it in relation to donor funding.

In July 2015, Uhuru firmly told then US President Barrack Obama that Kenya is not ready to embrace homosexuality.

He said in the Kenyan culture, homosexuality is not considered a human right.

“I want to be very clear, I will not engage in any subject that is not of any major importance to the people and the Republic of Kenya. This is not an issue of human rights, this is an issue of society. This is not acceptable, this is not agreeable,” he said.

In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on April, Uhuru reiterated the stand.

Section 165 of the Kenyan Constitution outlaws same-sex marriage and stipulates a five-year jail sentence for offenders.

Last year, director of the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Eric Gitari, went to court seeking to have sections 162 and 165 of the penal code decriminalised.

Gitari said the sections are discriminatory and contravene provisions of the Constitution including the right to equality, freedom from discrimination, human dignity, freedom, security and the right to privacy.

Uhuru said he does not advocate for the violation or discrimination of the LGBT community as it is also part of the society whose rights are provided in the Constitution.