Group vows to change Kenya’s ‘pro-gays’ law
Activists march to support gay marriages in the US. Photo/FILE
A Kenyan lobby group with close ties to the US Republican party is working on ways to change parts of the Constitution it says promote homosexuality and abortion and will involve local politicians to do so, a US think tank said on Tuesday.
A report by Political Research Associates cites links between the Nairobi-based East African Centre for Law and Justice and conservative Christian political activists in the United States.
Ms Joy Mdivo, the centre’s CEO, confirmed that her group had links to a US organisation headed by Mr Jay Sekulow, the report says.
It describes Mr Sekulow as “a prominent legal strategist for groups opposed to gays, abortion and Muslims, who advised former US President George W. Bush’s administration on judicial nominees and is embraced by current Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.”
Mr Sekulow’s US organisation, the American Centre for Law and Justice, is funded by evangelical campaigner Pat Robertson, who has warned that tolerance of homosexuality could result in earthquakes, hurricanes, terrorist bombings and “possibly a meteor.”
Ms Mdivo’s group is building alliances with several members of Kenya’s Christian community to promote “anti-choice and anti-gay politicians” in the national elections, the Boston-based think tank says.
The East African CLJ used influential evangelical leaders such as Bishop Mark Kariuki of Deliverance Church in Kenya to gain access to political leaders, the report states.
Constitution ‘pro-abortion’
“In short, East African CLJ is preparing for another opportunity to change the [Kenya] Constitution in line with its conservative ideologies,” adds the report by the Rev Kapya Kaoma, an Anglican priest from Zambia.
Ms Mdivo is quoted as having told the think tank’s researchers that “the current Constitution promotes gay rights and abortion.
We are working on going to court over those two issues. We shall also carry out further civic education to warn people of the dangers of homosexuality and abortion in Kenya.”
