A group of religious leaders, predominantly from the Christian and Muslim faiths, have petitioned Parliament to launch an urgent investigation into what they see as the spread of the LGBTQ agenda throughout the nation.
Clergy members assert that those claiming to speak for the LGBTQ community have organized and funded a well-executed strategy to challenge laws that forbid homosexuality.
The religious leaders, who gathered in Nairobi on Thursday morning, also promised to back the Family Protection Bill 2023, which aims to outlaw LGBTQ-related campaigns and activities and is sponsored by Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma.
“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.
Did you read this?
Representatives from more than 70 non-governmental and religious organizations signed the petition, which claims that proponents of LGBTQ rights are consciously working to have laws against homosexuality ruled unconstitutional while simultaneously criticizing the Supreme Court's decision to preserve the LGBTQ community's right to free speech.
They have lent their support to the Family Protection Bill 2023, which aims to outlaw LGBTQ activities, same-sex partnerships, and homosexuality and is sponsored by legislator Peter Kaluma of Homa Bay Town.
Singling out Grade 4 books they claim contain text on gay relationships, the leaders have expressed worry over the purported sneaking in of the LGBTQ agenda in study materials utilized in the Kenyan curriculum and the international basic education curricula.
The religious leaders are requesting that Parliament hold the Cabinet Secretaries of Education, Health, Foreign Affairs, Labor and Social Protection, and the Inspector General of Police accountable for the actions they are taking. These actions include the Ministry of Health's definition of sexual health and rights, the infiltration of the LGBTQ agenda into Kenyan and international curricula, the proliferation of foreign actor funding and lobbying on LGBTQ issues, and the enforcement of the Penal Code's prohibitions on homosexual conduct in Kenya.
