Obama to be confronted on gay issues

Ahead of Barack Obama’s planned visit to Kenya (24-26 July), Catholic bishops promised to oppose any advocacy on the part of the US President of homosexuality and population control, writes Fredrick Nzwili.

Mr Obama has been a vocal supporter of gay rights: the White House itself was illuminated in rainbow colours to celebrate last month’s Supreme Court decision to legalise gay marriage nationwide. African bishops broadly condemned that ruling.

Mr Obama was due in Nairobi for the 2015 Global Entre­preneurship Summit. In his father’s homeland, Catholic ­bishops fear he will promote a gay-rights agenda in a country where Churches oppose homosexuality as unbiblical and culturally offensive. The constitution bans active homosexuality and homosexual acts carry a maximum sentence of 14 years.

“He must stick to his purpose – the economic conference,” Bishop Paul Njiri Kariuki of Embu  told The Tablet. “We must maintain our gravity. It is wrong for anyone to push us to accept what is not morally right.” Bishop Kariuki backed demonstrations planned for the visit in support of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. “When homosexuals come to us, we try to help and rehabilitate them,” he said.

Speaking to The Tablet this week, Nairobi Archbishop Cardinal John Njue was asked about Mr Obama’s presidency. “It’s been OK,” he said. “The problem is gay marriage, which he has supported. This is very, very serious. If we move that way we are heading towards the end of the family.” The bishops are anxious too that Mr Obama may push for population control measures.