President Obama Kenya Visit Update: Kenyan Hosts Warn Obama Not to Address Gay Rights During Trip
While many Kenyans expressed excitement about President Barack Obama's upcoming visit to the country of his ancestors, some of them are already warning him not to "talk about the gay issue."
The president is scheduled to visit the country for the first time since he assumed his office in 2009, Agence France-Presse (AFP) noted. But his fourth Africa tour also marks the first foreign trip since the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in a landmark ruling across the U.S.
Bishop Mark Kariuki, an evangelical Christian pastor, told the newswire that Obama was welcome to visit "his father's home" as long as he did not plan to speak openly about gay rights in a country where homosexuality is "largely considered to be taboo and repugnant to (the) cultural values and morality," according to a report by the U.N. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
"It is important for us as Kenyans to know that the (U.S.) is not God, and thus we cannot follow them blindly," Kariuki said in an apparent reference to the Supreme Court's decision and recent changes in U.S. public opinion, where a majority now supports same-sex marriage.
During a Nairobi protest organized by the evangelical bishop, approximately 100 people wore shirts and waved posters with the slogan "Protect The Family," AFP said.
"We do not want 'Obama and Obama,' we do not want 'Michelle and Michelle,'" they chanted. "We want 'Obama and Michelle,' and we want a child!"
Addressing the protesters, Kenyan lawmaker Irungu Kangata minced no words as he warned the president what not to say during his visit to the nation of 44 million, the Huffington Post noted.
"We are telling Mr. Obama: When he comes to Kenya this month and he tries to bring the abortion agenda, the gay agenda, we shall tell him to shut up and go home," Kangata said.
African gay rights activists, meanwhile, have urged the president to use his trip to show solidarity with the LGBT community. Beyond Kenya, Obama also plans to travel to Ethiopia, where 97 percent of residents believe that homosexuality is unacceptable, the Pew Global Attitudes Project said.
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