David Kuria Mbote is the Africa's first openly gay Black political candidate running for national office (outside South Africa). The senate hopeful from Kiambu County is campaigning in a Kenya that punishes same-sex intercourse as a crime and in an Africa where, according to Gay Star News, "it is illegal to be gay in 25 out of 38 nations. In Uganda, homosexuality is punished by life imprisonment, and in Mauritania, Sudan, and northern parts of Nigeria gay people face the death penalty."
Windy City Times caught up with Mbote when he was in London presenting a leadership lecture for the international LGBTI rights group, the Kaleidoscope Trust, to discuss confronting hatred, human rights and hope.
Windy City Times: If you are elected to the Kenyan Senate in March 4, 2013, how long will your term be, and what will you be able to accomplish as a senator?
David Kuria Mtobe: If elected or perhaps I should say, when elected, I will serve for five years. During this time I hope to implement the five-point program for Kiambu. This program is elaborated in greater detail on my website.
WCT: What are your hopes for the people of Kenya?
David Kuria Mtobe: Kenya is a country endowed with many natural resources and very hard-working people. Yet, almost half the population lives below poverty line, many die out of easily preventable or curable diseases, youth unemployment is over 60 percent. Can you imagine the plight of those with no education? What is their hope?
We all want a country and a people that are living decent lives, have access to quality treatment and are treated equally before the law. It is my hope that all forms of discrimination and exclusion become a thing of the past—but that can only happen if Kenyans elect good and accountable leadership in the upcoming elections.
WCT: What are the major challenges facing Kenyans today?
David Kuria Mtobe: The main challenges include poverty, and, with it, [there are] poor health, corruption, lack of access to quality education, high youth unemployment, excessively high rates of HIV infections—four times the rates of all of western Europe put together. Many of our people still die of preventable or easily curable diseases—even while the political elite award themselves embarrassingly high salaries for the size of our economy.
WCT: Why do you have faith in Kenya's political system, especially when you have criticized its corruption?
David Kuria Mtobe: It would not be right to give up on our people. The Kenyan people and Kiambu residents, in particular, have consistently fought for change, and they remember the dark days of one party rule. They know change for the better is possible, and many now realize I represent that change.
WCT: I read a report that you were studying to be a Catholic priest since the age of 13, but were dismissed from the seminary at age 22 when accused of having relations with a priest who had left two years prior. You have denied that allegation.
David Kuria Mtobe: Actually, that is not correct. Firstly, I was in the seminary until age 27 after graduating with a [bachelor of theology degree]; I left of my own volition. True, there was that false accusation—I left after being cleared. The reason I left is because I could not, in conscience, teach something that I had serious misgiving about.
WCT: LGBT people are persecuted in Kenya. In 2010, there was measure introduced in the Ugandan parliament to make homosexuality an executionable offense, while two years later a new anti-gay bill there incited lynchings and fanned more hatred, forcing many LGBT people to seek refuge in Nairobi, Kenya, and other cities. What are the contributing factors to Africa's homophobia?
David Kuria Mtobe: The political class act and talk as if their personal views are the views of everyone in the society. The religious leaders on the other hand, are not democratic and have never respected an individual's option to live their lives as they know to be fit. The combination of these two forces and the lack of positive role models in the society make it difficult to project positive social perception of gay people.
WCT: Does homophobia have traditional and cultural roots in Kenyan and African culture, or did this attitude develop at a later period in history?
David Kuria Mtobe: I would not say that homophobia has traditional or cultural roots in the Kenyan society. For one, our cultural values are so different—what is respected in one community is derided in another; [for example,] circumcision in one community is a very respectable practice and yet in another just villages apart, it is thought of as mutilating oneself. Among the Kikuyu, women could marry other women—I saw one such couple in my own village.
WCT: Why is it important for you to say to Kenyans, "I am a gay man and I am campaigning for public office?" What do you hope to achieve through this?
David Kuria Mtobe: For me, being out about sexual orientation is more about honesty in public life than anything else. I also want to talk against structural barriers to HIV treatment, care and prevention. This gives me credibility, but in terms of performance in leadership, I do not think it is of much relevance.
WCT: Have your political opponents stoked homophobia to belittle you and your campaign?
David Kuria Mtobe: I have yet to hear of anything that is offensive—if they do, I will go to court to seek protection. Hate speech is criminalized in this country.
WCT: How do you and other LGBTs survive under a system that criminalizes your basic humanity?
David Kuria Mtobe: Human beings learn to adapt even in the harshest of situations; we have all have to adapt.
WCT: In the United States, any mention of faith in politics today rarely rises above extreme fundamentalism and other hardliner rhetoric. In Kenya recently, devotees of one faith bombed churches of another faith. Religions of all stripes have been used to justify slavery, manifest destiny, homophobia and the subjugation of women. As a theologian, as well as a student of history, what place should religion and books of faith have in government workings, if any?
David Kuria Mtobe: Separation of state and religion is very important. It offers protection to both religious believers and nonbelievers. Unfortunately, religious leaders tend not to learn from history—what they fail to understand is when they enjoy great power and use it unwisely to oppress and compel nonbelievers to live by the standards set from the pulpit, people generally rebel. We witnessed that in Kenya in 2010, when the religious leaders were campaigning against the constitution—they still hold sway but they have to be more responsible about it.
WCT: Is AIDS education where it needs to be in Kenya and the greater continent? If not, what is hindering that, and how can such be overcome?
David Kuria Mtobe: This is one area where our leadership have failed us miserably. We still have approximately 120,000 new infections every year and about 80,000 deaths each year due to AIDS complications. Having realized that they are unable or unwilling to do what it takes, our leaders now prefer to be silent about it. It is a shame that even with such a sad situation, someone would actually defend laws that keep vulnerable sections of the population from access to services.
WCT: You wrote, "Human rights are an essential component of building strong democratic structure." Tell us why.
David Kuria Mtobe: Respecting the basic human rights of each and every person is the basis [for people to] recognize their capacity for self-determination, and respect for the political choices they make through their vote. Dictatorship starts when a section of the society [takes for] itself the right to determine how other members of the society should live or not live.
To learn more about Mbote's campaign, visit www.kuriaforsenator.com .
