{"id":14544,"date":"2022-07-01T16:23:09","date_gmt":"2022-07-01T16:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/?p=14544"},"modified":"2022-07-01T16:25:46","modified_gmt":"2022-07-01T16:25:46","slug":"amecea-promote-unity-for-successful-credible-elections-amecea-sg-to-justice-and-peace-coordinators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2022\/07\/01\/amecea-promote-unity-for-successful-credible-elections-amecea-sg-to-justice-and-peace-coordinators\/","title":{"rendered":"AMECEA: \u201cPromote Unity for Successful, Credible Elections,\u201d AMECEA SG to Justice and Peace Coordinators"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

As Kenya prepares for the General Elections in the coming month of August, the Secretary General (SG) for the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) has asked Justice and Peace Diocesan Coordinators to take lead in promoting unity and commitment among the people for the realization of a fruitful election.<\/p>\n

Speaking to over 30 participants from the diocesan Catholic Justice and Peace Department (CJPD) who were attending a training\u00a0on elections civic education and elections monitoring and observation, Fr. Anthony Makunde reminded the coordinators their role towards the upcoming elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a role to play as Justice and Peace coordinators. Foster that spirit of unity and oneness for the realization of a peaceful and credible election,\u201d Fr. Makunde said in his opening address Tuesday, June 28, at JJ McCarthy Centre, adding that, \u201call these need commitments.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Secretary General of AMECEA reminded the coordinators from all the 25 dioceses in Kenya and the Military Ordinariate how people tend to point fingers at politicians when elections are mismanaged, forgetting that each person has a responsibility towards a successful election.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can be very good at pointing fingers at politicians when it comes to elections. We can always talk of the need for a peaceful, fair and credible elections expecting politicians to take lead in this realization,\u201d Fr Makunde underscored and continued, \u201cWe forget that we are all leaders and each one of us has a role of ensuring elections are conducted well, freely and in a credible manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

He appreciated the level of democracy in the East African nation which he discloses \u201cother nations admire\u201d and reminded the participants who were actually Kenyans that \u201csome people sacrificed for the country to be where it is today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe democracy in Kenya that other nations are admiring has undergone a long journey and some people have paid a price for it. As Justice and peace coordinators, you are here to maintain, strengthen and keep alive that spirit and the fruits the country gained after a long battle,\u201d says the SG who has been heading AMECEA secretariat since 2018.<\/p>\n

\"AMECEA
AMECEA Secretary General Rev Fr Anthony Makunde<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fr. Makunde narrated that in any democracy in the world elections present \u201ca platform for the expression of a people\u2019s political decisions, and are a sign of legitimacy for the exercise of power.\u201d Additionally democracy provides a privileged opportunity for a healthy and serene public political debate, marked by respect for different opinions and different political groupings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing the issue of election observations, the Secretary General said, \u201cDeploying election observers is a way to support a democratic process and to assist conferences (within the AMECEA region) in their objective to hold genuine elections in their countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

He encouraged the diocesan coordinators to keep praying for the success of the upcoming August 9th<\/sup> General elections for God\u2019s intervention because any \u201cmismanagement of elections cause destruction of human lives, homes and environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

On his side, the AMECEA Coordinator for Promoting Integral Human Development (PIHD) Fr.\u00a0Paul\u00a0Mung\u2019athia\u00a0Igweta reminded the participants that successful elections require good preparations hence the need for the training to prepare coordinators prior to the election day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came up with programs to support monitoring and observation of elections so that this time round, our elections in Kenya are peaceful,\u201d Fr. Igweta said adding that the coordinators should prepare citizens through civic education so that people are not forced to vote for specific persons but be free to make their own choices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA As Kenya prepares for the General Elections in the coming…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,9,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amecea","category-amecea-news","category-kenya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14544","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=14544"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14550,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14544\/revisions\/14550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}