wfn.org | Churches Present Plan to Save Kenya from Civil War

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusanews@pcusa80.pcusa.org>]

Reply-To: pcusanews list <pcusanews@pcusa80.pcusa.org>
11-August-1998 
98232 
 
    Churches Present Plan to Save Kenya from Civil War 
 
    by Sam Gonza 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
NAIROBI-Church leaders in Kenya have played a key role in drawing up a 
"blueprint for peace" in Kenya at a two-day National Peace Conference held 
early this month at the Limuru Conference Center near Nairobi. 
 
    Participants at the conference, which was convened by Kenya's leading 
churches, included political, religious and civic action groups.  The 
meeting, held on July 2-3, adopted a 55-page, six-point peace plan aimed at 
ending what many described as the constant threat of war in Kenya. 
 
    The conference follows the murder in January of dozens of people in 
Kenya's Rift Valley.  Those killed belong to the Kikuyu ethnic group, most 
of whom support the opposition Democratic Party which failed to defeat 
President Daniel Arap Moi's ruling KANU party in last December's general 
election. 
 
    The government claimed that cattle rustlers from other ethnic groups 
were responsible for the deaths.  However, there was widespread suspicion 
that the deaths were politically motivated. Some reports suggested there 
had been government involvement. 
 
    Speakers at the Limuru Conference said there was a risk of further 
ethnic violence. 
 
    One of the main recommendations from the conference was the outlawing 
of private armies. 
 
    The government has disputed claims that such forces exist in Kenya, but 
informed observers regularly mention "a parallel force" financed by 
politicians. 
 
    A "National Peace Accord" tabled by joint conference secretaries 
Professor Washington 
Okumu, a local peace worker and diplomat, and Abdullahi Abdi of the Supreme 
Council of Kenya Muslims includes a code of conduct for political parties, 
a proposal for a permanent commission of enquiry to prevent 
political/ethnic violence, plans for special criminal courts and for the 
reform of the country's police force under a new Police Board. 
 
    But observers fear that the recommendations from the peace conference 
will be weakened by  the government's boycott of the gathering.  President 
Moi had promised to open the conference, but he canceled two days before 
the event, declaring that "there is no war in Kenya." 
 
    At the same time, in what some observers interpreted as an attempt to 
pre-empt the churches, President Moi announced the appointment of a 
Commission of Enquiry, headed by a High Court Judge, to investigate the 
causes of the ethnic killings early this year and also of 
similar massacres in 1991 and 1992. 
 
    The moderator of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, Dr. Jesse 
Kamau, said the conference organizers had included the names of government 
dignitaries in the program after President Moi had indicated interest in 
participating.  The conference's conveners, Archbishop David Gitari 
(Anglican) and Archbishop Ndingi Mwana'a Nzeki (Roman Catholic), were 
unable to explain President Moi's change of heart about the gathering, but 
Dr. Kamau said that President Moi "was a man of peace" who may have been 
"misadvised" about the intentions of the conference. 
 
    On the opening day of the conference, Archbishop Gitari told 
participants that the absence of war did not mean Kenya was at peace.  The 
country needed a concerted effort toward national reconciliation in order 
to heal old wounds and move forward as a single unit. 
 
    Archbishop Gitari said he lamented the innocent blood of Kenyans shed 
in the politically motivated killings that began in the run-up to the first 
multiparty elections seven years ago. 
 
    At the conference the religious leaders supported the president's 
appointment of the Commission of Enquiry.  However, they pointed out that a 
similar Commission of Enquiry into the murder in 1992 of Kenya's Foreign 
Minister, Robert Ouko, had been closed halfway through its investigations. 
They urged the government to ensure that the current commission would 
complete its work without interference. 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  This note sent by PCUSA NEWS
  to the pcusanews list <pcusanews@pcusa80.pcusa.org>.
  Send unsubscribe requests to pcusanews-request@pcusa80.pcusa.org