Gay and in the news.

I stumbled upon a story in the BBC and as I read it I could not help but note that a news story of its kind would never have seen the light of day in the Kenyan mainstream news media. Like many African countries, homosexuality is not accepted in Kenya. It is a crime and one can be imprisoned if found guilty of being gay. This may sound ridiculous to some ears and perfectly normal to others.

To understand why the media in Kenya is very careful and conservative about issues like this, one has to understand that the main purpose of the media is to support national interests with regard to economic and social development. The media has to support the government in the spread of national unity and cultural integrity. What is not good for all of us, cannot be good at all.

The BBC story was about a young man who is living in the UK who claims to be gay,christian and African. It was not an article that one would define as anti-gay, as a matter of fact it is easy to see that the tone of the article is a sympathetic one towards gay Africans. The lines that BBC chose to highlight are those that applauded the UK for being accepting towards the gay community and those condemning African leaders for not embracing the gay community. The subject of the article was a 31-year-old Kenyan student currently studying in the UK. He was saddened by the fact that in Cameroon, there was an outing of top personalities for their alleged homosexuality. He was expressing his hope that one day he can be able to expose who he really is and not be afraid. Political campaigns in Kenya never entail gay rights or the empowerment of gay community. It is not an issue that commands any attention unless of course the media is condemning homosexuality.

It cannot be denied that there is a gay community in Africa and everyday it grows out it of its shyness. Many underground gay movements have taken root and the volcano is about to erupt. The mass media in Kenya has been under pressure to cover stories on homosexuality and the latest fault line being the case of a kenyan gay couple who got married in the UK. The Kenyan Newspapers, TV & Radio stations ran the story but not in the same friendly tone as that of BBC. The lines that Nation Newspaper chose to highlight were those about how the two men's families are being victimized in the rural villages where they have to live with the consequence of having raised gay children. They chose to highlight the shame that the parents are facing. They chose to talk about how Gichia and Ngenga are pleading with the world to leave them alone and mind their own business-- Nothing about rights or acceptance.Politicians in Kenya of course only speak against homosexuality, or don't speak of it at all.

Kenya is still a very homophobic society and the story did indeed spark outrage and controversy. This maybe precisely what the mass media is afraid of. With the gay issue being hot on the lips of every kenyan, it is unlikely that the media will keep quiet about it. At the end of the day, they still want to make money.