AMECEA: Justice Peace and Caritas Department reaches over 400 Church Agents on Peaceful Elections in Kenya

The AMECEA Justice Peace and Caritas Department has completed marathon sessions on peaceful elections targeting the church agents in Kenya ahead of the 8th, August, 2017 elections.  The department through the assistance of United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) under the invitation of the Kenyan Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB), engaged different groups of the church to deliver model peaceful elections in Kenya.

Those reached were clergy and religious, leaders of parishes associations within the Catholic Church and catechists with an intention of providing capacity for the Catholic Church to engage in peace building and creating awareness of good governance according to the catholic social teachings.

From the sessions, it was encouraging for AMECEA to realize the usefulness of the trainings with most of the participants requesting for the continuity of the program.  The participants who appreciated issuance of pastoral letters by the bishops however noted that they were not effectively reaching all Christians.  They also proposed that engagement on social dimensions of the church should be incorporated into the Small Christian Communities (SCC) curriculum to ensure continuous commitment with the communities.

The sessions which were conducted in the Eastern part of the Country targeted 400 leaders, however due to interest shown in the program 428 church agents were reached.

By Antony Mbandi