{"id":13546,"date":"2022-01-21T15:29:26","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T15:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/?p=13546"},"modified":"2022-01-21T15:29:26","modified_gmt":"2022-01-21T15:29:26","slug":"kenya-moral-and-social-structures-of-nation-threatened-religious-leaders-warn-ahead-of-general-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2022\/01\/21\/kenya-moral-and-social-structures-of-nation-threatened-religious-leaders-warn-ahead-of-general-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"KENYA: \u201cMoral and Social Structures of Nation Threatened,\u201d Religious Leaders Warn Ahead of General Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA<\/em><\/p>\n

As citizens of the Republic of Kenya look forward to the forthcoming General elections scheduled for Tuesday, August 9, representatives of Religious leaders under the auspices of the Dialogue Reference Group (DRG)\u00a0in their observation on the situation of the country, have warned that \u201cMoral and social structures of the nation are threatened, and require rebuilding to secure Elections 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n

Delegates of the DRG which comprise of eight different Religious groups, held a two-day meeting at Ufungamano House in Nairobi \u201cto assess Kenya\u2019s readiness for 2022 General Elections and make recommendations on existing gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Analyzing various concerns that the nation needs to address prior to elections, the delegates in their 3rd<\/sup> National Religious Leaders Convocation observe that the country is not yet ready for the elections as they decry \u201ccorruption, impunity, lawlessness, insults and incitement to violence\u201d which are happening \u201cwith abandon, and Kenyans are sinking deeper into despair and depression.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a great pain for Kenyans that political and state leaders have in the last 15 years deliberately neglected to address the issues of electoral justices, which exposes the nation to a repeat of the pre and post-election violence and crisis,\u201d Religious leaders lament in their communiqu\u00e9 signed by eight representatives of Religious leaders Thursday, January 20.<\/p>\n

As concerned citizens, the delegates of the interreligious entity steered by Archbishop Martin Kivuva Musonde of Mombasa Archdiocese and the Chair of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB), invite all Kenyans to \u201ccommit to pray and fast for the nation so that God intervenes and safeguards the lives and wellbeing of all,\u201d since the nation is in \u201creal danger of sinking into violence before, during and after the 2022 General Elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on this need, the leaders request each individual to select a day of fasting weekly and dedicate time to pray for the nation, as \u201cwe organize prayer sessions in our places of worship where we will welcome the elections related institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The convocation pointed out that the electoral legislative framework is still pending work in Parliament that need to be fine-tuned saying, \u201cOf note is the need for completion of the Campaign Financing (Amendment) Bill 2020; Framework for Realization of the 2\/3 Gender Rule; Political Party Primaries Bill; and others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTowards this, we have committed to engage parliamentarians at the local level to mobilize them to prioritize the elections related laws. This will be in addition to reaching all concerned institutions to ensure that the laws are implemented and adhered to,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Noting that elections management institutions in Kenya are \u201cheavily impeded from executing their mandates,\u201d members of the DRG have committed to \u201csupport the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to deliver the quality of elections envisaged in Article 81 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a way forward the Religious leaders promise to pray and offer spiritual and pastoral support to the IEBC staff at national, county and sub county levels and invite them to places of worship for prayers. Besides, they hope to \u201cseek an appointment with the Cabinet Secretary for Treasury and the National Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committee to push for early and adequate disbursement of funds to the IEBC so that they complete the preparations for the General Elections,\u201d and also meet the \u201cInspector General to emphasize the absolute need for assurance of protection of elections officials and immediate arrest and prosecution of perpetrators.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raising concern on security issues in the country, the delegates highlighted that such institutions \u201care clearly and progressively losing control of the situation in the country,\u201d hence increased \u2018violence and killings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe National Police Service has been accused of favoritism, disregard for rule of law, and gross human rights abuses,\u201d reads part of the Thursday communiqu\u00e9 as the Religious leaders commit to \u201cengage the Inspector General, as well as security agencies at national, county and sub county levels to advocate for equitable implementation of the law,\u201d and\u00a0 Where necessary, set up intelligence committees to investigate the identities of the people being killed as well as their killers and push for prosecution of the suspects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, the convocation underscored that weak civic competence of the public leads to citizens \u201ceither absconding the elections or voting for the richest candidates rather than the best qualified.\u201d<\/p>\n

They therefore promise to use \u201cplaces of worship to mobilize Kenyans, especially the youth, to register as voters, use structures to deliver civic and voter education to empower the people to recognize their position as holders of Kenya\u2019s sovereignty and deliver messages of peace and national cohesion through pulpits and all other public forums they have access to.\u201d<\/p>\n

In conclusion, the Religious leaders lament \u201cthe widespread impunity manifested by political actors as they engage in early campaigns,\u201d leading to increased cases of incitement to violence and hate speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe commit to reach out to His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta and appeal to him to disengage from the succession politics,\u201d since he is\u201d the symbol of national unity as provided for Article 131 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010, and so he should remain above partisan politics, recognizing that he is the President of all Kenyans,\u201d they said after the two-day meeting adding that the will also reach out to the Deputy President, HE Dr. William Ruto, to point out that he is using public resources and institutions to undertake partisan presidential campaigns, which goes against the values espoused in Article 10 of the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA As citizens of the Republic of Kenya look forward to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13551,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amecea-news","category-kenya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13546"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13560,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13546\/revisions\/13560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}