Reacting to 'President: Gay rights 'of no importance' in Kenya' (2021-05-05) ​

0:00:00 [Music]
0:00:05 one path network
0:00:07 i mean you guys would have known who
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0:00:14 videos on the internet in the english
0:00:16 language
0:00:17 they have now actually produced an app
0:00:20 now i know in this ramadan you're going
0:00:22 to want to take advantage of that
0:00:24 i've already taken advantage of that and
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0:00:28 i'm sure you're going to be downloading
0:00:30 it right now the link is in the
0:00:32 description
0:00:32 i think one of the most interesting
0:00:33 things to look at in terms of
0:00:35 when you talk about lgbtq rights and
0:00:38 america as a superpower
0:00:40 and also africa as a continent is
0:00:43 the approach of some of the african
0:00:45 presidents to
0:00:47 questions about homosexual rights so i'm
0:00:49 going to look at one
0:00:50 video today there's many of them online
0:00:52 of different
0:00:53 african presidents kind of answering
0:00:56 this in different ways one we're going
0:00:58 to look at today and then come back and
0:01:00 react to it
0:01:01 one of the major issues and it's a
0:01:03 holdover from sort of colonial victorian
0:01:06 is the issue of sexual preference
0:01:09 in many african countries in kenya to be
0:01:12 gay the lgbt
0:01:14 community is is illegal they just want
0:01:16 to have
0:01:17 equal rights the same privacy and
0:01:19 equality as all other kenyans do
0:01:22 is that something that you aspire to for
0:01:24 your country i want to be very clear
0:01:26 uh christian there is
0:01:29 i will not engage in a subject that is
0:01:32 of no
0:01:34 it's uh it is not of any major
0:01:37 importance to the people and the
0:01:38 republic of kenya this
0:01:40 is not an issue as you would want to put
0:01:43 it
0:01:44 of um human rights or this
0:01:47 this is an issue of society of
0:01:51 our own base as a culture as a people
0:01:55 regardless of which community you come
0:01:58 from
0:01:59 this is not acceptable this is not
0:02:01 agreeable this is not about uhuru
0:02:03 kenyatta saying
0:02:04 yes or no this is an issue that the
0:02:07 people of kenya themselves
0:02:09 who have bestowed upon themselves a
0:02:11 constitution
0:02:12 right after several years have clearly
0:02:15 stated
0:02:16 that this is not a subject that they
0:02:20 are willing to engage in it's very
0:02:23 you're going to get yourself into
0:02:24 trouble i mean for her to say you're
0:02:26 going to get yourself into trouble
0:02:28 to an elected official not just an
0:02:31 elected official but the president
0:02:33 of kenya the president of kenya i think
0:02:36 shows absolute audacity in fact i was
0:02:39 quite surprised
0:02:40 when i looked at the comments in this
0:02:41 particular video the one with the most
0:02:44 like 16 000 comments is one who is high
0:02:47 somebody is highlighting this point who
0:02:49 are you to tell he says
0:02:51 in the comment a democratically elected
0:02:54 leader
0:02:54 of a sovereign nation that he will get
0:02:56 in trouble for representing the values
0:02:58 of his people
0:02:59 and then he says correctly i think the
0:03:01 west needs to stop forcing minority
0:03:03 opinions down the throats of nations
0:03:04 that are fundamentally opposed
0:03:06 to those ideals let's continue listening
0:03:08 to it but it's a global issue right now
0:03:11 it's it's important to them
0:03:14 where they are why is it i am saying to
0:03:16 you as president
0:03:17 important to me as the leader
0:03:21 of 49 million kenyans
0:03:24 and after if you want to ask me my
0:03:27 personal opinion
0:03:29 what is your personal after i finish my
0:03:31 process i can talk about my personal
0:03:33 opinion
0:03:34 would you publicly say that people who
0:03:36 are lgbt
0:03:38 gay members of the kenyan population
0:03:41 should not be discriminated against
0:03:43 no kenyan should be abused
0:03:47 should be you know
0:03:51 mistreated in any particular every
0:03:54 kenyan
0:03:54 is protected by law you see here what
0:03:56 we're seeing is a clash
0:03:58 of uh we're seeing a clash of values
0:04:00 really but not just a clash of values or
0:04:02 in the sense that you've got these kind
0:04:03 of american
0:04:04 uh knowledge productions being forced
0:04:07 down
0:04:08 the kenyan president's and not just him
0:04:10 but the society in which he represents
0:04:12 because correctly he says
0:04:13 about ninety percent ninety-nine percent
0:04:15 some say nine out of ten
0:04:17 people in his country see homosexuality
0:04:19 as uh
0:04:20 inexcusable as an act but we're seeing
0:04:24 actual problems within the framework of
0:04:26 the westerner because
0:04:28 the western framework says okay you're
0:04:29 allowed to have a sovereign nation
0:04:31 and this is one of the um kind of human
0:04:34 rights that you can have
0:04:35 but at this end you can have a democrat
0:04:37 democratic vote but at the same time
0:04:39 you got these minority rights which you
0:04:41 should respect so what should be
0:04:43 prioritized here
0:04:44 should it be that you have democratic
0:04:47 agency of a for
0:04:48 of a sovereign nation that is
0:04:50 prioritized or the minority rights of
0:04:53 a group of people who have decided to
0:04:56 identify
0:04:57 through their sexuality so even within
0:05:00 the framework of western imperial
0:05:03 or ideology there's is a clash within
0:05:07 that framework not just
0:05:08 in contra distinction or juxtaposition
0:05:11 with the african nations
0:05:13 so let's continue and kind of finalize
0:05:15 with some thoughts
0:05:17 every single kenyan but
0:05:20 they also must recognize that their
0:05:22 freedoms
0:05:24 are also must be taken into the
0:05:27 entire context of the society and he is
0:05:30 right that is a question of society and
0:05:32 not only that but
0:05:34 on contractarian understandings of
0:05:36 liberalism okay where
0:05:38 you as as a subject individual subject
0:05:40 you are
0:05:41 contracted to the the foreign nation or
0:05:43 to the nation in question through
0:05:44 citizenship or whatever it may be
0:05:47 you are obliged to obey by laws you are
0:05:50 obliged to obey by law so now you have a
0:05:52 another layer
0:05:54 of problem not not once again a problem
0:05:58 between ideologies but within the
0:05:59 ideology of liberalism
0:06:01 because here we have okay sovereign
0:06:02 nation you have the democratic uh
0:06:06 initiative
0:06:07 and now you also have a third layer
0:06:09 which is a social contract all three are
0:06:11 pointing in the direction of
0:06:12 okay homosexual homosexuality can
0:06:14 legitimately from within theory
0:06:16 okay be seen as something which can be
0:06:18 outlawed but then that
0:06:21 the only kind of um thing against this
0:06:24 is to say well actually
0:06:26 homosexuals are minority right and that
0:06:29 should trump everything else
0:06:30 now you can make arguments either way
0:06:32 what i will say
0:06:33 is un inexcusable really is the fact
0:06:37 that in the past the uncle tom
0:06:39 the uncle tom barack obama when he went
0:06:42 to uh
0:06:43 kenya which is his actual you know kind
0:06:45 of mother
0:06:46 nation if you want to call it is actual
0:06:48 nation where it's from
0:06:50 he was speaking down to the kenyan
0:06:52 people most of which you don't believe
0:06:54 that homosexuality should be something
0:06:56 which is
0:06:57 practiced uh publicly or
0:07:00 actual penetrative homosexuality is done
0:07:03 he's speaking down and trying to lecture
0:07:05 them using western
0:07:07 uh imperial parliaments the point of the
0:07:09 matter is this
0:07:11 he went further in tying foreign aid
0:07:14 foreign aid with
0:07:18 whether or not countries
0:07:21 implement lgbtq policies this means to
0:07:24 say now look
0:07:25 when you have african countries in
0:07:26 poverty happening in african countries
0:07:28 and children
0:07:28 dying toddlers dying babies dying
0:07:31 because they don't have the food
0:07:32 to nourish themselves what what obama
0:07:36 and the
0:07:36 liberal project in america have decided
0:07:38 to do is say
0:07:40 that is less of a priority than
0:07:42 homosexuals
0:07:43 getting to experiment sexually in a
0:07:45 public sphere
0:07:46 can you imagine this so the right of a
0:07:48 homosexual
0:07:49 to have intercourse or to show intimacy
0:07:51 to his homosexual partner in a public
0:07:53 sphere because we're not talking about
0:07:54 what happens behind closed doors
0:07:56 that is more important
0:07:59 than the right of a child to eat and
0:08:01 drink
0:08:02 and we are gonna tie foreign aid with
0:08:05 your
0:08:06 uh with a foreign um prime minister or
0:08:08 president's ability to implement lgbtq
0:08:11 policies what have the kids got to do
0:08:12 with these policies
0:08:14 what a cruel and unusual kind of
0:08:16 punishment that you're inflicting upon
0:08:18 children who are completely bystanders
0:08:21 to these ideological discussions
0:08:23 it shows you the extent to which the
0:08:25 uncle tom
0:08:26 barack obama and those who follow his
0:08:28 footsteps are willing to go
0:08:31 to strip people away from their
0:08:34 rights young children democratic
0:08:37 citizens wherever you
0:08:38 whoever it may be in african countries
0:08:41 and this should
0:08:41 highlight to us the extent to which this
0:08:43 agenda this colonializing
0:08:46 imperial agenda of the americans is a
0:08:48 corrosive force
0:08:49 which needs to be tackled head-on
0:08:51 actually in the literature there is
0:08:53 there is a name
0:08:54 for this there's a name for prioritizing
0:08:56 kind of
0:08:57 one community right over another okay
0:08:59 and it's called homo nationalism
0:09:01 jasper poa says homo nationalism is
0:09:04 defined
0:09:04 as a facet of modernity and a historical
0:09:07 shift marked by the entrance of
0:09:09 some homosexual bodies as worthy of
0:09:11 protection by nation-states
0:09:13 a constitutive and fundamental um
0:09:18 relationship between the state
0:09:20 capitalism and sexuality
0:09:22 the point here is if you want what is
0:09:25 homo nationalism is basically
0:09:27 prioritizing one community in this case
0:09:29 the gays right gay community
0:09:31 whatever that may mean nowadays to be
0:09:33 honest because that is ill-defined
0:09:35 we don't know what that means no more
0:09:37 with with the inclusion of all these
0:09:38 other
0:09:39 letters of the lgbtq plus
0:09:43 over and above another community in this
0:09:45 case it's africans
0:09:46 it's black people it's children you see
0:09:49 who
0:09:50 can't get now the the the foreign aid
0:09:52 that they would have
0:09:53 uh used to feed themselves and to clothe
0:10:02 themselves
0:10:09 you