Want the church vote? Here is the answer

The cleric who has emerged as the face of the No campaign on Thursday maintained that churches will not vote for the draft constitution unless the provisions on abortion and kadhi courts are deleted.

“If the abortion clause is not removed and kadhis’ courts clause retained in the proposed constitution, we will vote No,” said the Rev Peter Karanja, the general-secretary of the National Council of Churches of Kenya.

The clause on kadhi courts violates the rights of other religious groups, he argued, and faulted the draft for allegedly limiting religious freedoms by failing to recognise the right to propagate one’s religion and the right to convert to other religions.

Kadhi courts have been in the constitution since independence and deal with issues of personal law relating to Muslims only.
The Rev Karanja was adamant that the draft must be changed before the referendum.

“We want our demands to be addressed so that we do not pass a constitution that has contentious issues and revisit them later,’’ he said. He was speaking to the Nation during a meeting with religious leaders in Kisumu.

The top organ of the Catholic church in Kenya, the Kenya Episcopal Conference, is expected to make its stand on the matter known on Friday. The 29 bishops have been meeting in Nakuru since Monday.

The Rev Karanja is on a visit to Western and Nyanza provinces. On Thursday, he met more than 200 religious leaders in Nyanza where it was agreed to reject the draft unless it is amended to remove kadhi courts and the abortion clause.

“We believe that the issues raised by the Church can be resolved by amending the draft constitution before the referendum, failure to which we will advise our flock to vote No,” said the NCCK boss at the end of the meeting.

“It is a matter of grave concern that the government, whose responsibility is to promote nationality and national cohesion is currently campaigning for the draft constitution without first resolving the outstanding contentious issues.”

The Rev Karanja was accompanied by NCCK Nyanza region chairman, Bishop Joshua Koyo and more than 130 religious leaders.

Seeds of discord

He warned that the Yes campaign spearheaded by President Kibaki and Prime minister Raila Odinga could polarise the country along ethnic lines, plant the seeds of discord and plunge the country into civil strife. He was speaking at Ahero Pastoral Centre where the ecumenical conference took place.

There were dissenting voices, though, with some clergymen admitting that it would be “an uphill task” to advise their flock to vote No. “At the grassroots things are not good as a number of our faithful are for Yes and it will be hard to change them,” said a cleric at the meeting.