National Council of Churches of Kenya acknowledges partisan by leadership
The National Council of Churches of Kenya has taken a courageous step and publicly acknowledged that church leaders were partisan prior to Kenya’s December elections and are unable to mediate in the political crisis facing the country. Matters related to religious groups such as promises to give a faith-group special right to apply particular religious laws that are contrary to the Constitution of Kenya, a secular state, need to be brought into the open. B.T.
African Charter Article# 23: All peoples shall have the right to national and international peace and security.
The National Council of Churches of Kenya has taken a courageous step and publicly acknowledged that church leaders were partisan prior to Kenya’s December elections and are unable to mediate in the political crisis facing the country. Matters related to religious groups such as promises to give a faith-group special right to apply particular religious laws that are contrary to the Constitution of Kenya, a secular state, need to be brought into the open. B.T.
Churches confess they let Kenyans down
Church leaders have publicly acknowledged they were partisan prior to Kenya’s December elections, and are now unable to mediate in the political crisis facing the country. Speaking under the umbrella body the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) last Wednesday, the leaders said they did not speak in one voice, could not agree on the way elections should be managed and identified with their ethnic communities during the campaigns. The divisions were carried forward even after the elections, making it difficult to agree on how to deal with the resulting crisis that led to the death of about 1,000 people and the displacement of 350,000
“Religious leaders failed to stay on the middle path, they took sides and were unable to bring the unity needed when the crisis arose,” they said in their statement read by NCCK Secretary General Peter Karanja and called on Kenyans to start afresh since all had failed to play their part including the church leaders. “Church leaders have displayed partisan values in situations that called for national interests. The church has remained disunited and its voice swallowed in the cacophony of other vested interests,” the leaders said in their candid statement. The leaders were however quick to point out that they had put in place measures to recapture their rightful position in society as the moral authority of the nation. They will do their best in helping achieve the rebirth of a new Kenya.
The NCCK brings together 27 churches from all over the country. Although the Catholic Church is not a member of NCCK, it subscribes to the Ufungamano initiative, which brings together all religious groupings in the country.