U.S.
President Barack Obama on Saturday delivered a firm message on gay
rights during his landmark visit to Kenya, Africa, where homosexuality
is outlawed, triggering strong criticism for apparently imposing his
values on the continent.
Obama
arrived Friday in Kenya, his father’s birthplace, starting his first
visit in seven years since he was elected president to the East African
nation that considers him a local son.
Ignoring
cultural differences between the Western world and Africa, where many
religiously conservative countries do not consider gay rights an issue,
Obama called for gay rights, comparing homophobia to racial
discrimination during his talks with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Obama, who
started to embrace gay marriage in 2012, told Africans that
discrimination against gays was like treating people differently because
of race, drawing on his own background as an African-American. He said
he is “painfully aware of the history when people are treated
differently under the law.”
Kenyatta was unmoved, however, saying gay rights “is not really an issue on the foremost mind of Kenyans.”
“There are
some things that we must admit we don’t share, our culture, our
societies don’t accept. It is very difficult for us to impose on people
what they themselves do not accept,” he said.
Some
African rights groups had urged Obama to tread cautiously on the issue
and a number of Kenyan political leaders had warned Obama that any
overtures on gay rights would not be welcomed in Kenya, where anti-gay
laws have broad public approval and homosexuality is seen as immoral,
punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
In 2014,
the United States stopped some of its aid to Uganda due to the African
country’s move to toughen prison sentences for gays.
(Punch)
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