Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga (pictured above) ordered the arrest of all gay people earlier this week, but now he is backing away from his statements. On Thursday, the official, whose anti-gay quotes rattled gay and lesbian communities everywhere now says he was misquoted by the press.

At a conference on Kenya's progress since the 2008 post-election violence, he said he understood "there are gay rights."

The Kenyan politician who is also referred to as Agwambo and who has been in office since 2008, has made his rigid agenda very clear, which is to rid his land of homosexuals. The very same man who asserted during a BBC televised special back in 2008 that he was President Barack Obama's paternal first cousin, proclaimed a witch hunt of sorts.

Odinga did not mince words when he told the BBC, "If found, the homosexuals should be arrested and taken to relevant authorities. We will not tolerate such behaviors in the country. The constitution is very clear on this issue, and men or women found engaging in homosexuality will not be spared."

Odinga has made it all too clear that he thinks homosexuality is unnatural and it is "mad for men to fall in love with each other while there are plenty of women available." Kenya's constitution currently bans same-sex marriages. The country's laws also forbid "sex against the order of nature," a charge that is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Kenyans are so dead set against homosexuality that a 2007 Pew Global Attitudes Project, revealed a strong 96 percent of the country's residents said the practice should be rejected by society. Oddly enough, lesbian relations are not prohibited in the law, although Odinga has recently called for gay women to be arrested along with gay men.

Currently the climate for known homosexuals in Kenya is a dangerous, too. They are constantly harassed by law enforcement, held in detention for long periods of time without being charged, then finally presented in court on trumped-up accusations. Police are also known to threaten lesbians and gay men with arrest and imprisonment unless they are given bribes.

Some gay and lesbian activists were hopeful though that Kenya might relax its laws a tad with respect to homosexuality because of the controversy that swirled last year around gay couple Charles Ngengi and Daniel Chege. The couple made global headlines when they first married in London, where they live, then attempted to hold a wedding back in their homeland at a Kenyan hotel. The two men were attacked during the operation but were rescued by the police.

Activists were up-in-arms that there was such widespread condemnation and controversy surrounding the married couple by their countrymen in the UK and back in Kenya. Unfortunately, even after all of the wedding hoopla, the archaic belief systems of traditional Kenyans did not budge with regard to homosexuality.

Kenyans are not alone in their anti-gay stance. Last month, a Uganda paper published the names and photos of the country's "top" gay men and lesbians alongside a yellow banner that read "hang them." In 2009, a bill criminalizing homosexuality in Burundi was signed into law by President Pierre Nkurunziza. The Rwandan parliament also considered a similar bill that was thrown out after debate.

In the same year, Uganda introduced a bill that would, in certain situations, impose the death penalty on people caught engaging homosexual acts. The punishment of death was later removed due to international pressure. The bill is still under consideration by the Ugandan Parliament.

Gays and lesbians on Wednesday held a silent march asking Prime Minister Odinga to withdraw orders to arrest them.

The march was part of events marking World AIDs Day celebrations in Nairobi. Perhaps the march was somewhat successful because the Prime Minister's office has called Odinga's remarks "off the cuff," saying they were not a directive to arrest anyone. David Kuria, a spokesperson for the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya, told CNN that the comments triggered state-sponsored homophobia.

Kenya's new bill of rights prohibits discrimination on any grounds, but Nguru Karugu, a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya, believes many have already taken Odinga's words as sanctioning further discrimination against homosexuals. Gays and lesbians are saying that the prime minister's remarks will also further instigate violence and prime them for attack.

Sadly, one group, the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya, said it had received phone calls from frightened gay and HIV-positive people who feared they could be taken into custody when collecting their HIV medication.

"All the years of hard work we've done to curtail intimidation, violence and blackmail toward homosexuals has now been adversely reversed," Kuria told CNN.