KENYA: Christian Professionals in Kenya March to Advocate for Protection of Life and Family Values
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
Members of the Kenya Christian Professionals Forum (KCPF) have condemned the recent ruling by Supreme Court of Kenya which affirms the freedom of association for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) group, and organized a march aimed to promote family values and protection of life.
In their statement dated Friday, March 24, the chairman of KCPF Mr. Charles Kanjama noted on behalf of the members that even though the forum organizes for a march for life yearly around the streets of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, “to create awareness on need to promote and protect life at all stages,” this year members are also against the high court ruling.
“Alongside all profilers in Kenya, we will not grow weary, we will not rest until we restore a culture of life and family in Kenya for ourselves and our posterity,” members of KCPF stressed in their statement noting that the Supreme Court’s ruling on believes of LGBT groups are “a big threat to family and life which the forum must resist.”
The KCPF brings together Christian Professionals from various denominations sharing common values on Life, Family, Religion, Value-Based Education and Governance. The forum also provides technical support in influencing the development of a legal and social environment that is supportive of biblical values in society through: Research, Advocacy, Mentorship and Witnessing.
According to members of KCPF who had their march for life on Saturday, March 25, and who are “deeply concerned by the High Court ruling which was on 24th February this year, says the judgement “opens the way to the gradual dismantling of our legal, moral, and cultural prohibitions against homosexual behavior, which is so destructive of the individual, families, communities, and the nation.”
While the Court did not overturn the anti-sodomy laws in the Penal Code for now, reads part of the statement, “It has signaled that gays and lesbian can now engage untrammeled by legal restrictions to unravel our various guardrails against promotion of homosexuality.”
The Saturday march by KCPF was in conjunction with the Linda Uhai (Protect life) Consortium composed of Prolife Organizations who highlighted that, ”We are in difficult times and forces of goodwill must come together to protect these vital values in our society.”
Themed “Protecting life and family in challenging times,” the march for life advocates against abortions and stands for the protection of life from conception till natural death.
“We stand guided by Article 26(1) of the Constitution of Kenya we believe that every person has the right to life.” Further to that, Article 26(2) adds that “The life of a person begins at conception,” they underscored what steers their forum adding that, in recognition of these articles and the mission of Jesus in the Gospel of St. John, “KCPF continues to uphold the sanctity of Human Life, in line with our belief that life begins at conception and ends at natural death.”
The yearly choice of date for the march is usually timed to coincide with the universally accepted date of the Immaculate Conception on March 25, “which is the day when the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, the mother of Jesus and announced to her that she would give birth to Jesus.”
“It is our hope and expectation that this year’s march for life will encourage each Kenyan to fulfil our unique mission to the best of our ability because in so doing we will collectively build a culture of protecting life in Kenya. A culture where abortion is unthinkable,” KCPF members expressed and concluded that they have had meetings with Church leaders and come to a consensus on commencing the process of amending the Constitution.
