Read Kenyans Rection To Obama’s Gay Right Speech

People in Nairobi on Sunday gave a muted and measured response to US President Barack Obama’s firm support for gay rights during his visit to Kenya. 

Standing alongside President Uhuru Kenyatta outside State House on Saturday, Obama answered a journalist’s question on gay rights by drawing equivalence between homophobia and racism.

“As an African-American in the United States I am painfully aware of what happens when people are treated differently under the law,” Obama said.

The comparison is particularly stinging in Kenya, which, like other African countries, has a proud history of resisting and overcoming colonial rule by white foreigners.

“When you start treating people differently –- because they’re different –- that’s the path whereby freedoms begin to erode, and bad things happen,” said Obama, adding that treating people differently “because of who they love is wrong, full stop.”

“I’ve been consistent all across Africa on this,” said Obama, who previously spoke in support of gay rights during a visit to Senegal in 2013.

Then, President Macky Sall replied that his country was “not ready” to decriminalise homosexuality, which is illegal in 35 African countries and carries the death penalty in four, according to campaign group Amnesty International.

On Saturday, Kenyatta repeated his argument that, for Kenyans, gay rights is “really a non-issue”. He said it was an area of disagreement for Kenya and the US.

“There are some things we don’t share, that our society, our culture, don’t accept,” Kenyatta said.