big 'no' to same-sex unions

By Mugumo Munene (The Nation)

July 2005: Kenyans are overwhelmingly opposed to homosexuality and same-sex marriages, an opinion poll has revealed.

According to 98 per cent of the respondents in the Steadman Group poll, the practices ran contrary to their personal principles, morals and religious teachings.

The opinion poll was conducted in 14 urban centres in April and was released after the Nation reported that the world leader of the Anglican Church, Archbishop Rowan Williams, was scheduled to visit Kenya tomorrow.

The archbishop is expected to meet church leaders from the Great Lakes region to discuss Aids and conflict in the region.

Ninety-eight per cent of those interviewed in the poll also said "no" to homosexual church leaders. About a third said they rejected homosexuality, viewing it as a negative influence from the West, while 96 per cent said it was against their religious beliefs.
The Anglican Church has been rocked by a heated debate on homosexuality since the Episcopalians - the American Anglicans - ordained gay Bishop Gene Robinson in 2003.

But 95 per cent of Kenyans said in the poll that the acceptance of homosexuals as priests would weaken the church's foundation.

Nearly a third of those interviewed would change their church if the leader is gay while half would change denominations altogether.

They told the pollsters that they opposed homosexual leadership in politics and would not even want such couples to adopt children. The results were released yesterday by Steadman chief executive George Waititu.

Nairobi, Nyeri, Kitui, Garissa, Kisii, Mombasa, Malindi, Meru, Machakos, Kisumu, Kericho, Nakuru, Eldoret and Bungoma towns were covered in the poll.

Already, a number of the Anglican Church's African provinces, Kenya included, have in the past few months rejected millions of dollars in funding from the American Episcopal Church to protest at its decision to elect gay bishops and allow same-sex marriages.

Last weekend, the Nation learnt that funding was among the major issues the archbishop of Canterbury, who heads the world's 72 million Anglicans, would address at a meeting with bishops in Nairobi during his one-day visit.

But provincial secretary, Bishop William Waqo, said funding would not be on the agenda of the proposed meeting.

"The main agenda will be HIV/Aids and the conflicts in the Great Lakes region," Bishop Waqo said. "We want to see how the church can be more effective in fighting the scourge and bringing warring parties to a truce. Concerning funding, we have already made our stand clear."