A Nairobi court
ruling on sexual relations between cousins has left tongues wagging
after it said the act is not illegal in Kenya.
The ruling was made
by High Court Judge James Makau who said that the Sexual Offences Act
does not mention cousins under the offence of incest which is sexual
relations among relatives.
Capital FM News sought to get the opinion of people on what they thought of the ruling.
Daystar
University's Chaplain Jeremiah Obura said a lot of what is happening is
out of influence from the western culture where they do all sorts of
weird things and people copy for the sake of it.
He quoted the Bible
the book of Leviticus Chapter 18 verse six which states: "No one is to
approach any close relative to have sexual relations, I am the Lord.
There is no debate on this issue. Based on the scriptures it is not
right and it rules out."
Obura explained
that for the court to make the ruling, such things should be considered
because it is wrong and may not be the best thing to educate our
children.
"These days things
have really changed we even find fathers sleeping with their own
daughters something that the bible has forbidden, they should reconsider
the whole issue again and consider what the scripture says," he said.
A business man in
Ngara James Mwangi said he could not understand how the court would come
up with a decision like that and even the bible itself is so clear that
it is wrong.
"This is something
that is going to mislead the future generation giving them the idea that
it is right to sleep with their own cousins," he said.
Jacob Odhiambo a
tout in one of the routes in Nairobi said that no matter how the judge
tried to put it, it does not make sense for a cousin to sleep with
another cousin as they are of the same blood. He explained that in their
culture it is a taboo and even a curse to sleep with your relatives.