(ANALYSIS) American gospel musician Kirk Franklin and his Maverick City shook off negative perceptions from Kenyan skeptics to stage a show in Nairobi last month.

As fans gathered at the Ulinzi Stadium this past Aug. 17 to dance to Franklin, many critics chose to stay away. Ulinzi is Swahili for “defense.” Those who believe they are defenders of the Christian faith warned that Franklin was no longer a true representative of Jesus — drawing to controversies that have plagued the musician in the recent past.

Australia-based Kenyan author Winnie Thuku Craig was one of those warning Kenyans against attending Franklin’s show. Craig, whose social media posts are often touching on the pulse of contemporary Kenyan Christian life, is of the opinion that Franklin should drop all pretense to be singing for Christ.

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“Are you sure you want to hear me talk about that sell-out?” Craig asked. “I thought he lost his way decades ago — why is he still using ‘gospel artist’ as his label? I’ve got nothing good to say about someone who sat and watched Christ being mocked during the Grammy awards and still went ahead to perform on the same platform. Not once, not twice, but Grammy award ceremony after Grammy award ceremony, year after year he proudly sits through that mess. He feasts together with those who openly mock Christ. I’ve got nothing good to say. Luckily for him, I’m not God.”

Franklin had been trending this summer in the International Christian music scene with the most famous — some would say infamous — being when he was performing at the 2022 Hip-Hop Awards. During his performance, he rapped a song that left many confused and upset. The specific part of the song that rattled the internet was the lyrics that stated, “The Lion and the Lamb will bow down to the goat.” 

When the announcement was made that Franklin would be in Kenya as part of his world “Kingdom Tour,” some Kenyans were outraged — claiming that the American musician was an LGBTQ ambassador.

A little context here: To a majority of Kenyan Christians, like their counterparts in many African nations and throughout the Global South, matters regarding LGBTQ+ relationships are black and white — with no room for gray. So to them, same-sex relationships are a sin and against the Bible and God. In 2023, Pew Research Center estimated that over 90% of Kenyans oppose same-sex marriage. Furthermore, Franklin went public in 2020, apologizing to gay Americans for how they had been treated by the Black church.

“I want to apologize for all of the hurtful and painful things that have been said about people in the church that have been talented and gifted and musical, that we’ve used and we’ve embarrassed … and all this other horrible crap that we’ve done,” Franklin said. “We have not treated them like people. We’re talking about human beings, men and women that God has created.”

However, when the curtains finally went up, a good number of Kenyans attended the show nonetheless, some no doubt pulled by the presence of well-known Kenyan gospel acts who shared the stage with Franklin. Despite calling for a boycott of the tour — which also included stops in Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Ghana and South Africa — fans still showed up.

Among these was rising star Bethuel Laasoi — known simply as Bethu — who apart from being a successful musician is also the music pastor at the International Christian Centre, a Kenya Assemblies of God church. Also making an appearance was Timothy Kaberia, who has made a name for himself as being one of the main organizers of Africa Let’s Worship. AFLEWO is an inter-church music concert that draws thousands to its annal concerts.

Pastor Edward Munene of the International Christian Centre in Mombasa was the brainchild of Franklin’s visit. He defended the singer against accusations that he had veered from God’s teachings.

“One thing we must be aware of is that there is a strong cancel culture, more so in social media. The remarks attributed to Franklin should be looked at against the context that it was at a rap concert. Thus, when he talked of goat, Franklin meant Jesus Christ,” Munene said.

According to Munene, he ignored the calls from Kenyans to cancel the tour because as far as he was concerned, they were unjustified.

He added: “When someone tells me so and so is no longer a Christian, the first thing I do is to check the kind of life you are leading and the fruits thereof. When I did that with Franklin, I realized that he was still committed to his salvation.”

Tom Osanjo is a Nairobi-based correspondent for ReligionUnplugged.com. He is a former parliamentary reporter and has covered sports, politics and more for Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper.