The excitement and frenzy in Kenya surrounding the US President’s visit in July to his family’s homeland was tremendous.
Unsurprisingly, for the Western press, the item that got most coverage was Obama’s championing of gay rights. Prior to the visit, Kenya’s Deputy President, William Ruto, said: ‘Homosexuality is against the plan of God. God did not create man and woman so that men would marry men and women would marry women.’
Obama responded to the BBC: ‘Yeah. Well I disagree, don’t I.’ He went on to frame the issue in terms of pursuing equality and in particular a desire that the State should not treat law-abiding citizens differently because of ‘who they love’. He paralleled it with the painful history of segregation experienced by African Americans in the US.
