Kenyan president unmoved by Obama’s gay rights plea

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>President Barack Obama has nudged African nations to treat gays and lesbians equally under the law&comma; a position that remains unpopular through much of the continent&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Obama&&num;8217&semi;s Kenyan counterpart responded by calling the matter a &&num;8220&semi;non-issue&&num;8221&semi; for his country&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Obama tackled the sensitive issue on his first full day in Kenya&comma; the country of his father&&num;8217&semi;s birth&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He drew on his own background as an African-American in the US&comma; saying he is &&num;8220&semi;painfully aware of the history when people are treated differently under the law&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;That&&num;8217&semi;s the path whereby freedoms begin to erode and bad things happen&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Mr Obama added during a joint news conference with Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;When a government gets in the habit of treating people differently&comma; those habits can spread&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Kenyatta was unmoved&comma; saying gay rights &&num;8220&semi;is not really an issue on the foremost mind of Kenyans&period; And that is a fact&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A number of Kenyan politicians and religious leaders had warned Mr Obama in outspoken terms that any overtures on gay rights would not be welcomed in Kenya&comma; where gay sex is punishable by up to 14 years in prison&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Obama&&num;8217&semi;s visit to Kenya &&num;8211&semi; the first by a sitting US president &&num;8211&semi; has been long sought by this East African nation where he is widely considered a local son&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Acknowledging that some Kenyans have been frustrated that it took him until the seventh year of his presidency to visit&comma; Mr Obama joked that he didn&&num;8217&semi;t want the rest of Africa to think he was &&num;8220&semi;playing favourites&&num;8221&semi;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Still&comma; he noted the US had concerns about violence that erupted in Kenya after its 2007 election&period; Mr Kenyatta faced charges related to that violence in the International Criminal Court&comma; though those charges were later dropped&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed606ba9135">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; function &lpar;&rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; false &equals;&equals;&equals; &lpar; window&period;isWatlV1 &quest;&quest; false &rpar; &rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&sol;&sol; Use Aditude scripts&period;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;tudeMappings &equals; window&period;tudeMappings &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;tudeMappings&period;push&lpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;divId&colon; 'atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed606ba9135'&comma;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;format&colon; 'belowpost'&comma;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub; &rpar;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; document&period;readyState &equals;&equals;&equals; 'loading' &rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;document&period;addEventListener&lpar; 'DOMContentLoaded'&comma; window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &rpar;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub; else &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback&lpar;&rpar;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;script>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>


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