Is Gay Rights a "Non-Issue" In Kenya?

In a press conference with President Barack Obama today, the Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was pressed about gay rights in his country. His response to the question could be broken down into two interrelated parts: 1. that Kenyan culture looks at gay rights differently from American culture and 2. that gay rights is not a pressing issue in Kenya. Both of these responses could however be seen as a single response as it was a roundabout way to reject the notion of gay rights in Kenya. Many African politicians are talking about gay rights these days as if it were an American thing when being gay is not foreign to African cultures. Thus, linking being gay to American cultures as if being gay is foreign to African cultures is to misrepresent African cultures. If Africans want to oppose gay rights they may do so on other grounds rather than appealing to culture.

The second point President Kenyatta made has to do with the claim that gay rights is a non-issue in Kenya. If one thinks of a non-issue as an issue that does not exist, one cannot honestly say that gay rights is a non-issue in Kenya. Gay rights can only be a non-issue in Kenya if it is taken to mean that most people do not lose sleep over whether or not gay people are treated fairly in the country. As a matter of fact, most people are perhaps more concerned about bread and butter issues, as President Kenyatta rightly said. However, this does not mean that gay rights is or should be a non-issue. Once we are talking about questions of human rights, it can never be a non-issue because it relates to the question of human flourishing. If President Kenyatta is interested in working for the flourishing of all Kenyans, gay rights cannot be a non-issue because there are many people in Kenya who suffer because they have no breathing space in a homophobic Kenya. As long as they are gay people in Kenya who seek equal treatment from the state, gay rights can never become a non-issue.