wfn.org | Kenya's Religious Leaders Seek to Mediate

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

15-September-1997 
97357 
 
    Kenya's Religious Leaders Seek to Mediate 
    National Peace Talks 
 
    by Alexa Smith 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--Twelve of Kenya's religious leaders are working intensely 
to get proposed talks under way between the country's entrenched ruling 
party and its increasingly powerful but historically fragmented populist 
parties, who are demanding democratic reforms before the country's next 
general election at the end of the year. 
 
    Roman Catholic and Protestant church leaders, as well as Islamic 
leaders, are trying to bring the Kenya African National Union (KANU), the 
ruling party, and opposition groups together to discuss constitutional 
changes guaranteeing more freedom for Kenya's 2.7 million voters to 
assemble, protest and speak publicly. 
 
    KANU has monopolized Kenyan politics for more than 20 years, but 
narrowly reelected longtime president Daniel arap Moi five years ago in 
Kenya's first multiparty election -- an election plagued by allegations of 
vote buying, government harassment of the opposition and ballot-box 
stuffing.  Splintering among opposition groups prevented an upset of the 
president in 1992, but widespread public strikes and protests are creating 
pressure for reforms that would constitutionally stop KANU from restricting 
other parties' visibility, speech and individual dissent. 
 
    "What happened was a polarization of views," said Kwendo Opanga, 
associate editor of "The Daily Nation," a Nairobi newspaper with a 
circulation of 210,000, describing the gulf that separates KANU and its 
opposition and has repeatedly led to rioting and violence throughout the 
summer.  "And neither side could be trusted to look at the issues 
objectively or to rise above party politics. 
 
    "It would have to be the clergy," he said, "to bring the two sides 
together around the table and have them talk. ... Somebody had to mediate 
between those groups." 
 
    The mediators are working on a tight timetable, since the elections are 
constitutionally mandated to be held by the year's end.  And that means the 
mediators themselves -- whether longtime critics of KANU, such as the 
National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), or longtime backers, such as 
some Pentecostal groups -- need to stop advocating a particular stance and 
start listening to all the players. 
 
    "Our mission is a goodwill mission," said the Rev. Jessie Kamau, 
moderator of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) and one of the 
members of the mediating team. He is adamant that churches are demanding 
political reform out of worry about families caught in Kenya's declining 
educational system and eroding job market.  "We've come to a pastoral 
problem and we need to talk now. ... 
 
    "There's nothing clergy want but to settle the matter," said Kamau, 
insisting that the 12 religious leaders are stepping into the political 
sphere only temporarily.  "We're just trying to get in between the 
politicians ... listen to them, [see] how we think we can help them." 
 
    After protracted delays, KANU and the opposition parties reportedly sat 
down together with clergy leaders for the first time August 29 to discuss 
the content of the impending talks.  Areas of public debate have included 
government control of the media, establishment of an independent electoral 
commission and reduction of the sweeping kinds of powers now held by 
Kenya's president.  Even though the government concedes that eliminating 
remnants of imperialist law from Kenya's constitution is necessary, the 
dispute is about what exactly will be eliminated and, more important, when. 
 
    "If [Moi] lets reform happen before the election, it is quite possible 
he'll lose.  And he doesn't want that," said a spokesperson for the 
Washington, D.C.-based organization, the Africa Faith and Justice Network, 
commenting on how KANU has dallied about negotiating. 
 
    Reformers want constitutional and legislative change before the 
impending general election, charging that that is the only way the voting 
will be fair.  Some factions within the reform movement -- like the diverse 
National Convention Assembly (NCA) -- are threatening to boycott the 
election altogether if the government refuses to comply with the 
pro-democracy groups' demands. 
 
    "If Moi delays, there will be no elections.  We'll stop the elections," 
said the Rev. Timothy Njoya of the PCEA, who is a longtime Kenyan activist 
and a vocal member of the NCA.  "We'll go to churches and mosques on 
election day," he said, adding that if the Moi government is then returned 
to power, it will be without the legitimacy it now enjoys. 
 
    Badly beaten by government security forces during one of the July 
protests, Njoya said he suspects the government hopes to neutralize the 
influence of increasingly vocal clergy leaders demanding political reform 
by proposing clergy mediation.  "The church is being sort of bribed, 
deceived by Moi ... so the church can withdraw from reform and be quiet. 
 ... It is a gimmick to buy time," he said, and a way to "hoodwink" the 
international community into believing the government intends to negotiate. 
 
    But even Njoya believes that clergy will be valuable mediators since 
they are not seeking political jobs or personal gain. 
 
    The initial 17-member team of clergy mediators appointed by the 
government -- some of whom were Moi's close associates and only three of 
whom were members of the reform movement -- was rejected by the other 
parties and some segments of the public as partisan to KANU. The next group 
was self-nominated by the churches, with no one figure serving as chair. 
 
    Conceding that the mediating role does neutralize activist church 
leaders as advocates, Amnesty International's Adotei Akwei said that 
church, however, seems to be "very much a part of the glue" that is holding 
together polar groups within Kenya's society -- and he argues that December 
or January are the earliest dates that reforms could reasonably be put into 
place.  "I think," he said, "we all know the elections -- at this point -- 
are not an open, fair process.  And if they announce the elections ... 
early, it will throw everything into turmoil." 
 
    Father Michael Ruwa of the Catholic Secretariat in Nairobi said that 
although church leaders have never done political mediation before, clergy 
were moved to act now because of the gravity of the situation. 
 
    "Most clergy have had hard things to say about KANU. In 1991, [some 
religious organizations] were if the front of the push for a multiparty 
state," said Opanga, though he says some evangelicals have remained 
moderate in the political debate.  "I am hopeful they [clergy] can pull it 
out. 
 
    "It all depends on how the politicians play it out, how the opposition 
plays it out, how KANU plays it out," said Opanga.  "If they cannot agree 
among themselves, then the clergy have nothing to mediate.  If there are no 
talks, there's nothing to mediate." 
 
    But Kamau is optimistic, especially after reports that the two sides 
made some progress on groundwork for the talks in a late August meeting 
that he was unable to attend.  "Maybe they'll begin exchanging ideas ... 
but [we] don't know how far it will go," he said.  "We are kind of hopeful 
now that dialogue will begin.  Whether it is genuine and sincere or just to 
buy time, we don't know.  We hope it will be sincere." 
 
    Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) liaison to Kenya the Rev. Jon Chapman 
insists that Kenyan clergy are still a credible voice in the society.  "If 
anybody can do this," he said of the mediation work, "the clergy can.  I 
can't think of another group in the country who could do it.  It's a 
daunting task." 

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