A Christian organisation has filed an application in court to be enjoined in a suit challenging the ban on Rafiki film.
Rafiki
tells the story of a romantic lesbian relationship, hence the move by the Kenya Film Classification Board to ban it over the homosexual theme. In its application, Kenya Christian Professionals Forum director Charles Kanjama says it wishes to be enjoined in the suit.
KCPF is an organisation of Christian professionals representing Christian churches in Kenya that make up 80 per cent of the Kenyan population. It has interest in matters of public interest involving life and family advocacy.
The lobby wants to protect the interests of the family, which is a constitutionally safeguarded unit.
“We are keen on the promotion of morality as protected by the Constitution being the fundamental unit of society, hence is acting in its mandate to safeguard adherence to the law that outlaws homosexuality,” Kanjama says.
The law provides for the right of every adult to marry a person of the opposite sex. It further dictates that the purposes of the Constitution shall be protected and promoted.
The forum is also enjoined as an interested party in two ongoing cases related to homosexuality at the High Court and Court of Appeal.
Kanjama says film maker Wanuri Kahiu’s desire to submit Rafiki to the 2019 awards cannot be a basis for spreading ideas, artistic or otherwise that promote the practices outlawed by the penal code and are against Kenyan culture and values.
Rafiki, which means friend in Swahili, premiered at the Cannes film festival in September, the first Kenyan film to do so. It is adapted from an award-winning short story Jambula Tree by Ugandan writer Monica Arac de Nyeko.
In the case, Kahiu wants the court to issue an order suspending the decision to ban the film to have it submitted as Kenya’s entry to the 2019 Oscars.
Kenya Film Classification Board CEO Ezekiel Mutua banned the film in April due to the homosexual theme. Kahiu, through lawyers Rajab Leteipan and Waikwa Wanyoike,
says following the ban she cannot submit the film for review by the Oscars Selection Committee Kenya for consideration in the Best foreign Language Film category award.