wfn.org | The Church And Self-Reliance: Give God What Is Right and NOT WHAT

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

AANA Bulletin is an ecumenical initiative to highlight all endeavours and 
experiences of Christians and the people of Africa.  AANA Bulletin is 
published weekly and, together with the French Edition - Bulletin APTA - is 
also available through e-mail.	For editorial and subscription details, 
please contact: 

AANA Bulletin	: Acting Editor - Mitch Odero		
Bulletin APTA: Edition en frangais, ridacteur intirimaire : Sylvie Alemba

All Africa News Agency
P.O. BOX 66878 NAIROBI, KENYA
TEL : (254 2) 442215, 440224 ; FAX : (254 2) 445847/443241
E-mail : aanaapta@insightkenya.com

SPECIAL  REPORT

Learning Paralysed As Teachers Demand For Pay Rise

NAIROBI (AANA) October 7 - Learning in Kenya last week came to standstill 
as some 200,000 teachers in public schools went on strike. The agony of 
parents is showing as the strike takes new twists each day. The trade 
dispute also promises to open doors for others.

The Kenyan government and teachers are engaged in a fierce battle over a 
pay rise agreement that has forced the teachers to abandon classes. Most 
schools have been closed, and, in many cases, students sent home.

Seeking the implementation of between 150-200 percent a pay rise 
unsuccessfully for five years, the estimated 240,000 teachers went on 
strike late September, effectively crippling learning in schools across the 
country.

Two weeks into the strike, the maze is more mangled, and continues to take 
a political a dimension. The pupils caught up in the twists are seen 
playing around their homes, or seeking private tuition.

The agony of parents is openly evident, as they implore the government to 
end the strike. On September 29, Church leaders, speaking during Sunday 
service in many parts of the country, expressed their concern that the 
strike could harm education in the country.

They are now urging the government and the teachers union to come to a 
negotiating table and solve the disagreement. "Since 1997, the government 
has treated the teachers like children. If it does not have money, it 
should say what it can offer," Bishop Cornelius Korir, the Chairman of the 
Kenya Episcopal Conference Education Commission told journalists here..

"The pain of the parent should also not be underestimated in the wake of 
this saga," said Vincent Wanyama, of the Catholic Justice Peace Commission
said at the All Saints Cathedral, here in the capital.

The teaching force is demanding the execution of a 1997 pay rise agreement, 
which the government has adamantly refused to honour. The Kenya National 
Union of Teachers KNUT signed a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with 
the government in 1997 to increase their salaries by 100 percent.

The agreement was to be effected in a five-year period. However, the 
government back-pedalled but after paying the first phase between 25-35 
percent.

The union's secretary general Francis Ng'ang'a last week maintained that 
the teachers should get what is rightly theirs no matter how long it took. 
"The teachers will use all that is at their disposal, no matter how long it 
takes," he declared here.

The union is accusing the Ministry of Education and the Teachers Service 
Commission TSC of "meddling" instead coming up practical solutions to the 
impasse. The KNUT chairman  John Katumaga accused the two parties of 
failing in their duty. "They have not done their workThey should go and do 
something
else," he said .

But the government has maintained that it cannot give what it does not have 
since the economy had performed poorly over the past years. In addition, 
traditional donors have remained indifferent, citing bad governance and 
widespread corruption.

If the teachers' new  pay package was implemented,  it would cost the 
government about KShs 28.5 billion (about KShs 78 to the US dollar), 
according to the teachers. But the TSC has put the figure at KShs 50 billion.

President Daniel Arap Moi had ruled out the possibility of the pay rise, 
saying it could not be effected unless donors resumed aid flow. He has 
explained that he understood the problem facing teachers, but they should 
understand the economy was gloomy.

The Minister for Education, Mr Henry Kosgey, last week	also ruled that the 
government would not give teachers any raise because the present state of 
the economy could not cushion it. "Please bear with us, we cannot give you 
what we don't have and teachers should not think we have closed doors to 
dialogue".

But caught by the strike, the government moved to stop the September wages 
for the striking teachers , threatened to lay them off, advertised new 
teaching positions and stopped teachers' remittances to the  union which 
called the strike.

It is also  "revoked" the pay agreement. But KNUT denounced the legitimacy 
of the move, promising to stick to its guns until its demands are met. 
The  teachers union, which says it has been demeaned and tricked, has 
stated that it "would not take little offers and big promises that have 
contradicted their negotiations for pay increases".

Disturbed that the strike was starting to have effect on their children, 
the Kenya National Association of Parents asked its members and their 
children to start camping at the government's educational offices across 
the country.

"Parents and their children should camp outside the offices until the 
government offered solution to the strike," said Mr  Ndunda Musau, the head 
of the organization in Nairobi.

The Central Organization of Trade Unions COTU is also threatening to call a 
nation-wide strike if the government does not end the teachers strike. Last 
week, leaders of the umbrella body gave the government 14 days to honour 
the teachers' pay agreement or they would mobilize nation-wide workers
strike.

Some teachers interviewed said that they did not wish to continue with the 
Strike. But if the government did not effect the agreement they had no
choice.

"We are learning that the government is using threat to break us. We also 
know they want to sack us. We do not wish to abandon our children, but 
should they continue like this, then we will fight on," said a striking 
teacher.

At the Moi Avenue Primary School in Nairobi, Joseph Sironik explained that 
although teachers were in school, there was a lot of confusion such that no 
learning could continue. "You can see situation for yourself. Students have 
not turned up and nothing
is going on. We are disturbed," he said.

Reported by Fredrick Nzwili

BOOK  REVIEW

Big Drop In Financial Support For Evangelisation

IS LEFT
Author: Michael Charo Ruwa
Publisher: Paulines Publications Africa. P.O Box 49026, Nairobi, Kenya
Printer: Kolbe Press. P O Box 468, Limuru, Kenya
Volume: 95 pp
Year of Publication: 2002
Available: Pauline Bookshops in Nairobi, Johannesburg Lagos and Lusaka

NAIROBI (AANA) October 7 - Self-reliance is fast becoming too central in 
church development in Africa in the light of dwindling funds for such 
activities on the continent. This is contrary to the situation in the past 
when funds were received uninterrupted from foreign donor agencies for such 
activities.

One of the reasons as to why this is happening today, according to the 
author of the book under review, is the dwindling of numbers of 
church-goers in the Western World. This, he maintains, has led into a 
dramatic fall in financial support for the work of evangelisation.

The book strongly advocates for self-reliance for the Church in Africa as a 
way forward for her development activities. This is the surest way to 
overcome challenges arising as a result of the dwindling of funds from 
donor agencies.

  Saying that the future of Christianity in Africa depends on 
sustainability of the mission and pastoral work by the Church of today, the 
author also notes that some developed countries are today shifting aid 
donations to other countries which are perceived to be managing their 
resources with honesty and responsibility.

Some of the donor agencies are now focusing on Eastern Europe countries, he 
adds. Due to the stated  "facts of life", the author has described 
self-reliance, as an issue about which the Church in Africa cannot remain 
indifferent.

All the faithful must be made conscious of the need for sustainability of 
the mission of Christ taking into serious consideration that the funds from 
foreign donors the Church in Africa has enjoyed in the past are no longer 
flowing smoothly into the continent, the book states.

He has advocated that the diocese/parish pastoral Council has to consider, 
among others, institution of strategies, ability to complete the set 
project in a limited span of time, ability to identify the limitations of 
the community in carrying out certain project and leadership continuity and 
stability.

On a wider level, the declining solidarity coming from the Churches in the 
North can be put against the background of the changing attitudes of the 
donor countries towards the developing world, the Kenyan Catholic priest
says.

The Church, he points out, must guard against preaching the Gospel of 
prosperity. The faithful should be discouraged into giving money in return 
for bigger blessings. This is what the prophet Micah was against:

"Her leaders render judgement for a bribe, her priests give decisions for a 
salary, her prophets divine for money, while they rely on the Lord, saying, 
'Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No devil can come upon us!'" (Micah 3: 
11), he records.

According to the author, giving in support of God's work has to be 
voluntary. For the faithful to freely give they need to know their 
responsibility towards the Church. The management of the resources of the 
parish and subsequently the diocese is the key in self-reliance, 
self-propagation and self-governing.

He has advocated for the need for continuous education on self-reliance, 
stressing that "this is necessary  for all personnel in the diocese, be 
they religious or laity".

He states that self-reliance is the key to ending world hunger and that it 
is the only reasonable foundation on which an independent Church can be
built.

"The Church needs to economically empower the faithful through self-help 
groups, but this is only possible by forming Credit and Savings Unions and 
other income generating activities based on groups," he recommends.

  The faithful should be encouraged on how to utilize their resources for 
their own development, the author suggests, stressing that "in this 
way   they can use their own resources to solve their problems".

The author considers pooling together of resources as important for 
self-reliance and "with the Small Christian Communities already in place 
this may be easy to achieve".

He explains that self-reliance arises from the need to free us from a 
system of dependency. "This can only come about as a result of helping 
people identify their own potential in resource mobilization".

The author has used various biblical verses to support his school of 
thought in explaining why theologically Christians   should support their 
church.

The life of the early Christians as reported in the Book of Acts, Chapter 4 
was that one of giving and sharing, of shouldering their responsibility as 
a community, and of bearing each other's burden. The early Christians were 
"doers" of the word, says the book.

Like the early Christians, the faithful of today are expected to be 
generous to the Church and support her out of their resources, the author 
has observed.

Stressing that Christians must sow their seeds and give in order to 
receive, the author quotes the Book of Saint Matthew 10:8: "Without cost 
you have received; without cost you are to give".

Since the concept of self-reliance arises from the need to break the circle 
of dependence and at the same time continue with the mission of Christ, it 
is essential to identify the current sources of the Church's income, the 
strengths and weaknesses, the book says
.
This way the faithful will be able to know what has made it difficult for 
their Church to become self-reliant.

This in itself is a step towards self-reliance. It has defined 
self-reliance as a condition of being able to rely on one's ability and 
efforts.

The book further says self-reliance is a call to change of attitude on all 
levels of social life, without losing sight of the basic responsibilities 
of all communities which are capable of self-determination and 
self-management with the full participation of all.

But it cautions that it (self-reliance) was not a call for de-linking with 
missionary assistance, but a call to enhance participation in the growth 
and development of the Church locally and globally.

  It is an invitation to supplement   the missionary support in 
spreading   the Gospel of Christ, the author stresses.

He has also cautioned that the Church in pursuit of self-reliance must not 
lose its mandate to "seek the first the kingdom (of God) and his 
righteousness, and all these things will be given your besides" (Matthew
6:33).

The Chairman of the Kenya Episcopal Conference, the Rt Rev John Njue has in 
the preface of the book, explained that self-reliance is an issue about 
which we cannot maintain indifference.

All the faith must be made conscious for the need for sustainability of the 
mission of Christ, he says. But in order to become self-reliant there 
should be transparency from authorities concerning the present situation.

Reviewed by Osman Njuguna