KENYA: Christian Professionals to Hold Parallel Events to International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD)
The Catholic Church in Kenya in collaboration with the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), and the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya and the Kenya Christian Professionals’ Forum have chosen to do side event during the International Conference on Population and Development which is scheduled to happen in Nairobi from November 12.
According to Dr. Wahome Ngare from the Association of Catholic Doctors in Kenya, these side events will allow pro-life and pro-family people to meet and dialogue over issues related to family and life and send an alternative message to the world about what Africans think about the issues.
(left) and Mr. Richard Kakeeto from Center for Social
Justice at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa
According to Mr. Richard Kakeeto, from Centre for Social Justice at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, the position of the Church has been to protect life within the context of marriage and outside. However, there are global entities that are opposed to the Church’s position and because such entities are well-resourced financially, they have been able to penetrate the United Nations (UN) and make sure that some UN policies and directives to countries are contrary to the values of family and life.
“In 1994, the United Nations Fund for Population Activities UNFPA convened such a a conference in Egypt in 1994. That conference tried to use human rights language to undermine the question of life and family as an institution,” Kakeeto explained adding that the conference created a threat that human population was about to explode therefore it needs to be controlled.
He pointed out the situation in China where UNFPA managed to convince the Chinese government to enforce the one-child-policy. In effect, it weeded out many girls thereby creating a situation of more men than girls and a situation of an aging populations and fewer young people.
“The Cairo Program of Action was supposed to guide nations on how to think about their populations and development. This document looked at human population as a liability and therefore the plan to invest in reducing the human population. UNFPA has gone around lobbying across various regional bodies such as AU and the East African Community. It has also lobbied Church entities like the All African Council of Churches and Act Alliance to buy to the agenda of discouraging women from having babies by give them all the artillery available for them to undermine conception and childbearing,” Kakeeto explained.
Kakeeto pointed out that the ICPD that was held in 1994 in Cairo is coming to Nairobi in November and they are essentially restating their positions and this time around pushing for more money from governments to commit to its agenda.
“One of the dangerous thing is that they are asking our governments to implement what is called universal health care which seems like very good. Unfortunately, the proposed universal health care by UNFPA and its allies is designed to offer abortion services, cover contraceptives, it will cover hormone assignments for transgender people as well as gender surgery for transgender people. This means that my money in taxes is going to be spent on covering things which I don’t agree with morally and within the teaching of my church.”
The Catholic professionals have pooled together to advice churches on how to respond to these international entities and their agenda and they are hoping that the end of their side events end of they will have an alternative set of commitment.
“UNFPA has set commitments from governments about their way of doing things, we are hoping we will have an alternative set of commitment derived from the International Conference On Population and Development that are very good for families, very good for life but have been neglected deliberately by the implementing agencies. So we would like to reaffirm those commitments and invite our governments to consider journeying with the faith based entities in implementing these commitments.”
The ICPD programs are scheduled to begin on November 12 and will be hosted at Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC).
The side events by the churches will officially start on November 10. The events will then move to the premises at Holy Family Minor Basilica in Nairobi which is in the same vicinity as KICC. Delegates are expected to come from various countries within the AMECEA Region as well as various dioceses within Kenya. The side events are expected to end on November 14.
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By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News
