Dear Deputy President,
My best friend is gay. She is also Kenyan.
She lives in a country where the majority of people are homophobic, and the other day you proved that the leadership is as well.
You made a rather ignorant statement the other day about how there is no room for homosexuals in Kenya, almost as if you think that being Deputy President gives you licence to speak with authority on what people like in the bedroom.
Tell me sir, do you like whips? Or chains? Or 'strange things' in the bedroom? And then, tell me, do you think it is any of my business? It really isn't.
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Sexuality is the business of no one but the individuals concerned. And on this nonsense that people are touting about homosexuals being recruited, were people also recruited into heterosexuality? Is it like a football team at school, with try-outs and sign-up sheets?
WHY WE CAN’T PROSPER
Instead of discussing the numerous Kenyans who died recently, Parliament is busily forming anti-gay caucuses. This is why we, as a nation, cannot prosper, because we are busy debating things like whether people should be allowed to fight for their basic, human, inalienable rights.
What a waste of valuable time.
For the record, sir, being homophobic does not mean that you are scared of homosexuals. It means you are a terrible person who does not care about basic human welfare, and you are of the belief that anyone who does not agree with you has no place here.
This is a scary trajectory. After sexuality, what next? Tribe? Religion? Will there be no room for other 'types' in Kenya? It sounds like an oncoming holocaust to me, because all forms of oppression are linked.
TRY AND UNDERSTAND
Look, I can understand being scared of something you do not understand, but the automatic and logical reaction to something you are scared of is to try and understand it, not burn it to the ground.
You claim to be a Christian. Where would you be if your kinsmen had burnt all the missionaries to ash?
Speaking of your Christianity, Christianity itself tells us to love one another; to not pull out the splinter in someone's eye before pulling out the log in ours.
If we are going on the basis of Christianity and if indeed homosexuality is a sin, then it follows that whatever sin you, the Deputy President have committed, is equal to that of the people you are apparently trying to kick out of their country.
It is their country just as much as it is yours.
It is my country as much as it is yours.
A country you are supposed to be a servant of.
You are supposed to be a servant of the people. All people who are Kenyan.
BASIC EMPATHY
Even if you separate people on the basis of leadership — a separation of church and state — what you have made is a blatantly irresponsible statement.
Do you think people are not already victimising those who are homosexual, or thought to be homosexual? Your comments made it infinitely worse.
Your role, as a leader of this wonderful country that clearly has homosexuals in it, is not to condemn and judge. Your role is to make sure that as Kenyans, they get the rights they deserve.
As a human being, I am insulted that you would make such an obviously biased and insensitive comment about another human being – to make them feel unworthy, when they are not.
As a Kenyan, I am deeply offended that this is how you go about protecting the rights of people you claim to lead.
It is unfortunate that you lack basic empathy — which means you do not understand or seek to understand issues you cannot relate with, like poverty, homosexuality or an increase in fuel prices.
And so you have proceeded, with your hateful speech, to alienate and distance yourself even further from my vote.
I dream of a Kenya where the idea of rights for all is not debatable but a norm for me, for my best friend, and for anyone who lives within our shores.
Because one day you'll take away my rights too, if we keep going on like this. Just as you want to take away hers.
Thank you for continuing to show me who you really are.
Yours,
Abigail Arunga
