President William Ruto and opposition leader Raila Odinga in an unlikely twist both read from the same script concerning the Supreme Court’s ruling which allowed the LGBTQ community in Kenya to form associations.
Speaking on Thursday, March 2 during the launch of the second phase of the Hustler Fund, Ruto said that though his government promised to obey the courts, the ruling that allowed same sex marriages is a “NO”.
“Not on this ruling. We will not! We will hold on to our culture and traditions. We will not allow same gender marriages,” Ruto said.
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In his part, Azimio leader Raila Odinga said that the best ruling by the Supreme Court judges would be to have the LGBTQ community table a petition in Parliament which would enact into law their association.
“Sasa mama akiolewa na mama, wataambiana nini? Hii maneno hatutaki, ni maneno ya kishetani kinyume na vile sis tunaamini (Now if a woman marries a woman, what will happen? We do not want these satanic things. They are contrary too what we believe)”, Raila said.
Speaking about the same issue during a televised show on Citizen TV on Thursday, March 2, Nairobi Senator and Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Secretary General Edwin Sifuna stated that there is a lot of hypocrisy surrounding the views of MPs, the Church and other political leaders when it comes to the debate on homosexuality and the LGBTQ community.
“When we (Azimio) were protesting the decision (on the 2022 General Election) by the Supreme Court they were telling us that this is the highest court in the land, the matter is over. Now people are saying that they are going to appeal, review… You cannot appeal the decision by the Supreme Court. It is the highest court in the land,”
“Some of these people are raising homosexual children and they don’t even know it because they don’t want to have a conversation. I agree that as traditional African society things take time for us to be able to appreciate them,” he said.
Senator Sifuna further argued that the debate on homosexuality is a distraction from the factual issues affecting Kenyans.
“For me this discussion is a total distraction to the real issues affecting Kenyans. We want to move the focus of the nation from the kitchen where people are unable to feed their families to the bedroom. It is ridiculous.
