In this world there is one thing that is inevitable no
matter how hard you will try to stop it, and that is CHANGE. No one can stop
change and history has continuously reminded us of these fact that when time to
change has reached you must change.
The High Court has given a landmark judgment that the
NGOs Co-ordination Board should proceed to register an organization with the
name “Lesbian and gay” as part of their registration name after they had
declined since the Board was of the view that the names were “repugnant and
inconsistent with the law”. The court observed that the matter was not an “issue
of marriage or morals” on which the board had based its argument but rather the
right to freedom of association and non-discrimination.
Any Historian and legal scholar on human rights will
tell you that Human rights developed as a result of people exercising their right
to freedom of association. Freedom of association is always the first step
toward the discovery of any right or freedom and now that the LGBTIQ persons have
this right as provided for in the constitution and affirmed by the court, then Kenya
is on the highway of having almost all the rights of LGBTIQ persons recognized.
Freedom of association creates a platform for people
to revolt, it creates a platform for people to come together and make their
demands. Thinks of Spartacus revolution when all slaves came together and
demanded for their freedom, think of the 1777 USA Declaration of independent when
the Americans came together and successful demanded for their freedom from
their colonizers, think of the 1688-1689 Constitutional Revolution in England
that led to the Englishmen being granted
their rights (this is just to mention a few) and here in Kenya think of the MAU MAU and the
various pre-independence Political parties that placed people together to fight
for a given course and finally in 1964 Kenya became fully an independent state
and you will realize that right of association is the tool and weapon that all
persons have used ever since time in memorial to achieve their goals.
The above examples are what the right to freedom of
association can do and that’s why am convinced that the LGBTIQ people in our
society should no longer be discriminated but society should find means to
create common ground with them. Though they may not take up arms and engage the
society in physical fights as other revolutions have done centuries ago but am
sure they are going to engage the society constructively in various ways and
soon the LGBTIQ persons will be entitled to each and every right that the
society has withheld from them and the society has to accept this change.
CHANGE IS INEVITABLE.
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