From the Worldwide Faith News archives www.wfn.org
Kenya's Religious Leaders Seek to Mediate
From
PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org
Date
17 Sep 1997 13:00:43
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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