From a “non-issue” to a matter of life and death: Exploring the weaponization of “Family Values” narrative in the Kenyan online space

Meet Ngare Kariuki, a communications expert collaborating on a unique digital research team supported by Komons, Kenyan Comms Hub, and Puentes. In this article, Ngare shares his experience in defining the research approach that guided their work. To know more about this project, discover how Komons is enhancing narrative change through technology and collaboration here.
This article is part of a series exploring family values and digital narratives in Kenya. Read the second part here.

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Depending on your vantage point, the word “family” evokes complex emotions. The family is often associated with safety and security (“east or west, home is best?”). Yet we also exist in realities where our most painful and traumatic events and memories can be traced back to our families. Little wonder that one of the most foundational questions by mental health practitioners to their patients is “tell me about your relationship with your mother/father/family”.

While the family can be both a nurturing garden and a battleground for the individual, the very idea of family has also become an ideological byword in geopolitical warfare about human rights. Google the term “family values” and you are more likely to come across discussions about homosexuality than you will about actual values that make a family something worth celebrating – values like love, care, compassion, and safety.

Pastor Dorcas Rigathi, the spouse of Kenya’s Deputy President, has been on a nationwide crusade with two main objectives – to “defend the boy child” and “protect family values.” In April 2024, she boldly stated that “families are under attack and family values are no longer esteemed. Families have no honour anymore. We have new generation philosophies of men marrying men, and women marrying women, and this we must say no to. The counsel of God shall stand.”

In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in 2018, former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said that LGBTQ rights were “of no major importance” to Kenyans, casually adding that homosexuality was a “not a human rights issue” in the country.

Five years later, on February 24, 2023, the Supreme Court of Kenya delivered a landmark ruling that LGBTQ persons “have a right to freedom of association which includes the right to form an association of any kind.” Since then, Kenya has witnessed some of the most violent displays of homophobic attacks and vitriol aimed at sexual and gender minorities. Politicians, church leaders and conservative members of the public have freely uttered and posted on social media channels some of the most hateful statements against fellow Kenyans.

Occasionally, the phrases “family values” and “family protection” have featured in these debates and conversations about the place and dignity of LGBTQ persons in Kenya, There’s been growing talk of the need to “protect the family as the fundamental unit of society.” In fact, a proposed anti-homosexuality law in Kenya is titled The Family Protection Bill.

But how could the well-being of the family ever be a controversial issue? Who, in their right mind, would want to attack the family? Aren’t “family values” about the moral and ethical principles that make every human relationship worthwhile? Doesn’t “family values” refer to moral and ethical principles like honesty, fidelity, truth, compassion, forgiveness and yes, the good ol’ love? And what does being queer have to do with it?

The “family values” narrative as a direct attack on LGBTQ rights originated in the 1960s and 70s debates in the US between the conservative Christian Nationalists and progressive actors. Threatened by the civil rights movement that led to the desegregation of public schools, and a series of court decisions that permitted interracial marriage and banned mandatory Christian prayer in schools, the Christian Right movement framed these shifts as an assault on the family unit. They also framed sex education as an attack on “the right of parents to determine their children’s education.” As the divide between conservative Republicans and Liberal Democrats widened, this narrative battle for the family has only grown and globalised.

In Kenya, the “protecting family values” narrative is often peddled as a defense against abortion, against LGBTQ rights and against sex education for teenagers. Anyone who attempts to defend the bodily autonomy of a woman or the personal dignity of a gay person is branded as an enemy of the family. The weight of the church and the largely conservative society just adds to the pressure. The main argument by the government of Kenya opposed the right of LGBTQ persons to form an association (in the Supreme Court case mentioned earlier) was that this was a threat to the family – the heterosexual, patriarchal family.

This situation presents a complex challenge for human rights defenders and change agents. It also presents a unique opportunity to navigate the discourse in more strategic and constructive terms. I am part of a team of researchers on a mission to trace how narratives and actors associated with “family values” influence the online discourses in Kenya on sexuality, gender and family. Our goal is not just to unpack how these narratives are framed and what fuels them, we are also interested in how these insights will equip change agents to formulate effective and value-based responses. 

Narrative change is bigger than simply injecting new or progressive rhetoric into public discourse.  It cannot be distilled down to “potent” messages and “strategic” keywords. That often comes off as tone-deaf or worse, counter-productive. Effective narrative change is more ambitious. It involves unpacking and challenging fundamental core beliefs. It must be part of an embodied life, inspired by the desire and commitment to see a world where all persons can live dignified lives and be free to exercise their bodily autonomy. 

We are researching the narratives that feed and feed off this harmful “family values” narrative. However, we are also researching the people (actors) who embody these narratives and disseminate them in the digital sphere. My experience as a professional communicator has revealed that many of these influential homophobic voices are not your typical activists. Many are not being “strategic”. They are simply saying what they believe – what they have been taught to believe. Some are speaking “out of the overflow of their hearts”, others are trying to win a social media debate, while some are simply speaking their truth without even the need to convince or persuade.

Yet, in their speaking and posting and commenting, their words are shaping discourses. Their arguments are changing minds. Their passion and consistency are touching hearts and infecting souls. They are causing real change, whether or not they know it, whether or not they intend to. Some nefarious actors are taking advantage of these shifts to promote hate, homophobia and harmful ideas about gender.

In this undertaking, we want to understand how these narratives are formed and take shape in the Kenyan digisphere. How do these ideas take root? What waters their seedlings? How do they flower and what digital bees are pollinating their seeds? 

In identifying actors we will find both malicious actors and sincere (though often sincerely misinformed) actors. We will also, hopefully, identify and learn from those who are effectively pushing back on this hate.

In the next few months, we will explore how the “family values” narrative has been weaponized, masqueraded and fueled to cause division in families, communities, and the Kenyan society at large. Our big question: How has the “family values” narrative as informed by heteropatriarchy, right-wing geopolitics and conservative religious and cultural values, shaped discourses on LGBTQ+ life, gender roles, CSE and reproductive health in Kenya? 

We believe our research will resource queer, trans, youth and feminist communities - the communities to which some of us belong - with the information required to resist anti-rights movements from a place of evidence, strategy and solidarity.

Our overall goal is to equip change agents with ideas, strategies and tools to resist, and reduce (if not stop) the harm to minority communities in Kenya. Ultimately, we want to contribute to a digital (and physical) world where all persons feel valued and respected. A world where the dignity of all and the bodily autonomy of all, especially women and gender minorities, is protected, safeguarded, respected and yes, celebrated.