Kenya’s President, William Ruto, has responded to the Supreme Court’s decision to allow lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights organizations to register.
Last week, on Friday, February 24, Kenya’s Supreme Court ruled that the decision to deny LGBTQ individuals the opportunity to form Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), despite homosexuality being outlawed in the country, was discriminatory.
This happened after lower courts in Kenya denied members of the community the opportunity to register an NGO to advance their rights in 2013.
Speaking at the Kenyatta International Convention Center (KICC) in Nairobi on Thursday, March 2, President Ruto said he respects the Supreme Court’s judgment but underlined that Kenya’s values and religion do not accept same-sex couples.
“You know me very well, I am a God-fearing man and whatever happened at the court, even if we respect the court, our culture, values, Christianity and Islam cannot allow women to marry each other, or men to marry fellow men,” he said.
Same-sex sexual behavior is illegal in Kenya, according to the Criminal Code 1930. It makes ‘gross indecency’ and ‘carnal knowledge against the order of nature’ illegal.
If found guilty, the maximum sentence is fourteen years in prison.
This is not the first time Ruto has spoken out on homosexual rights in Kenya. Ruto conducted an interview to CNN shortly after being declared president-elect in August of last year, and was asked about the problem.
Ruto, who had earlier said that there will be no room for homosexuality in Kenya, reiterated his stance saying, “We have Kenyan law, we have Kenyan constitution, we have our tradition, customs; we will continue to respect other people’s customs as they respect our customs and traditions.”
He told CNN that Kenya respects everybody and what they believe in, and that “We also have what we believe in and we expect to be respected for that too.”