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Kenya's William Ruto Says There's 'No Room' for Gays in His Nation

William Ruto made the remarks on the same day U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Kenya for talks.
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/ Source: NBC News

NAIROBI — Kenya's deputy president William Ruto said there is "no room" for homosexuality in Kenyan society in remarks at a church service on Sunday — the day U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in the country for talks.

"The Republic of Kenya is a republic that worships God. We have no room for gays and those others," Ruto told a Nairobi church congregation in Swahili, according to an online video posted by Kenyan broadcaster KTN.

Speaking to Reuters on Monday, Ruto's spokesman Emmanuel Talam confirmed the deputy president's remarks, adding: "The government believes that homosexual relations are unnatural and un-African."

Homosexuality is illegal in Kenya and has been so since colonial British rule, which ended in 1963.

The United States — which provides annual aid of nearly $1 billion to Kenya — has been at the forefront of calls for gay rights in Africa and has criticized anti-gay laws on the continent. When neighboring Uganda passed a law last year that toughened prison sentences against gays, Kerry described it as "atrocious." The law was later struck down by a court.

Kenyan activists condemned Ruto's remarks on social media.

"Kenya's deputy president joins an important tradition by Africans in power to spread hate in church on a Sunday," Binyavanga Wainana, an openly gay prominent Kenyan writer said on Twitter.

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— Reuters