March 6 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Kenya’s first lady, Rachel Ruto, has called for nationwide prayers against homosexuality, stressing that “the family has become an institution under attack” after Kenyan President William Ruto stressed that the authorities “will not allow same-sex marriages.”
“We want to strengthen the institution of the family, in which there is a father, a mother and children. LGBTQ ideas are prohibited even in the Bible and African culture. Let’s maintain family values,” he said, before stressing that “as people who love to pray and who came to the government through prayers, you can’t say they won’t pray in the face of what is happening.”
“I would like us to pray about family matters,” he wrote, while stating that “if the mother and father are not together peacefully, the children will have problems.” “That is why we will continue with the families through prayers and visiting schools to spread the word of God,” she said, as reported by the Kenyan newspaper ‘The Star’.
Finally, the Kenyan first lady has emphasized that “we should not even try to talk about LGBTQ, because it is a conversation that should not be had in this country”, as reported by the newspaper ‘People Daily’. “Accepting it is like throwing away our moral values,” she added.
The Kenyan president last week rejected the recent Supreme Court ruling that gives members of the LGBTI+ community the right to form groups in the country and said that, although he has promised to respect court rulings, in this case it is different. “Not this ruling. We will not accept it. We will cling to our culture and our traditions. We will not allow same-sex marriages,” he stressed.
“We cannot go to the streets to ask to be allowed to get married. This happens in other places, but not in Kenya,” he said. “I assure the women that we will not allow other women to be competition and the same in the other direction. If the men stay with the men, where will the women get husbands?” he asked, a position endorsed by the main leader opponent, Raila Odinga.
The Supreme Court of Kenya dismissed the Government’s decision to prevent the registration in 2013 of an NGO in favor of the rights of the LGTBI community and now endorsed its inclusion on the grounds that the group has the right to associate and organize. The court thus ruled against the decision to reject the registration on the grounds that it is a discriminatory measure, although it ruled that homosexuality continues to be illegal in the country, whose Penal Code contemplates penalties of up to fourteen years in prison for acts homosexuals.
