It's strange that Kenyans loved man who hated Black people

The shooting of Charlie Kirk, a right-wing podcaster and debater, at a university in Utah has dominated international news, leading even to the loss of jobs for those who have dared to speak against the life that the man lived. Kirk had, even before the election of Donald Trump, been hailed as a darling of the Right generally, and the Republican Party specifically. In his many speaking engagements, he was known to raise not only right-wing but also bigoted talking points in the name of family values.

Over time, he became famous for his unique brand of argumentation that would start off with highly-affecting absolute statements against certain demographics, demanding that his opposers prove him wrong. Through the years, some of the groups that he made disparaging comments against included Black people in general and Black women in particular, arguing, for example, that slavery ought to be reinstituted as it would lead to a sharp decline in crime and a return of family structures, and that Black women in public office were always diversity hires with no merit to their names. Above all, he was known for speaking proudly on his Christian faith, and this faith is what his supporters have spoken of most fondly since his death.

Perhaps the least likely place where you would expect to find supporters of Kirk would be in Africa, considering how often he spoke ill of Black people. Ironically, however, many condolences after the announcement of his death flowed from the continent, with conservative African Christians mourning the death of a figure that they felt had had a great influence over their lives. In Kenya, debates raged between those who felt that Kirk’s death was unjust, and those who thought he had it coming because of his hateful rhetoric. But what boggles the mind is how Kenyans, who are all the way across the Atlantic and farther still, are able to identify so deeply with Kirk. What is it about him that made so many people overlook his hate and look towards a greater, albeit non-existent, message?

On the one hand, the myth of the exceptional immigrant psychologically plagues people of all races who emigrate to the United States, especially if one is African or Asian. For the typical African, it is unconscionable to be compared to the African American, for whom it has been drummed into many immigrants that they embody the worst aspects of Blackness: Crime, slovenliness, broken family structures and general violence. To the Black immigrant who wants to be seen as different from and superior to the African American, the irony is lost that viewing African Americans in such a denigrating manner is to acquiesce to the racial bias that places Black people at the bottom and everyone else on top.

For the African on African soil, evangelical Christianity is largely to blame for this antithetical thinking. In recent years, traditional Christian practice has been largely taken over by the rapid rise of American Christianity on the continent. This wave of Christian growth has proven to be a balm for many, due to its preaching of such ideas as the prosperity gospel, which highlights the importance of planting financial seeds in the Church if one is to earn earthly riches. However, because it is tied to the American Right, this brand of Christianity also brings with it the politics of the US, forcing churches to align with Israel as the chosen land regardless of the atrocities that it commits, and creating racial, sexual, and gender hierarchies where some categories of people are more equal than others.

Ideas are not harmless, abstract concepts. No matter how much supporters of Kirk would like to divorce his beliefs from the violence it produced and focus on his religious fervour, it is simply impossible to do so. For the average African, recent history reminds us that it was the spreading of hateful ideas that led to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. Couching violence in religious rhetoric does not soften its blow, but only exposes how low people are willing to stoop to sanitise their hate. We ought to be careful who we idolise no matter what statement they make that might resonate with us as our idols might be praying for our downfall.

Ms Gitahi is an international lawyer