Saving Kenya from itself

Faith leaders work to unite a divided nation, writes Paul Keenan

“Protest at your own peril!” – strong words defiantly delivered. The challenge, which was widely reported across social media in Kenya last weekend, came from the nation’s President Uhuru Kenyatta in response to an equally defiant vow from his political rival, Raila Odinga, that weekly protests in Nairobi and other urban centres will continue after a failed legal challenge to ban them.

At the heart of matters is a bitter contest for the future of Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), a body established by President Kenyatta to oversee the next election in August 2017. Vocally opposed to the make-up of the body, Mr Odinga has accused it of bias in favour of a president seeking a second term in office and he has rallied supporters in demonstrating each Monday since late April calling for its members to quit.

The fact that the ruling Jubilee coalition agrees with Mr Odinga on the need for electoral reform – including of the IEBC – suggests that the row is one easily solved. Sadly, this has proved to be other than the case, and while Mr Odinga continues to call for IEBC members to be ousted without further ado, President Kenyatta repeatedly insists that he must be bound by the Constitution in progressing the matter.

Stalemate

The result is a most dangerous stalemate in the run-up to an election year where neither political hopeful seems willing to be seen as weak.

This is borne out of the failure of either side to back down in the face of increasingly violent clashes between protestors and police. 

Conducted in and around local IEBC offices and the body’s headquarters in Nairobi, the capital’s protest of May 16 turned extremely violent when police brutalised demonstrators, including one who was photographed as officers in riot gear beat and kicked him unconscious. Worse was to follow, however, when on May 23 police in Siaya in Western Kenya opened fire on a demonstration and shot three people dead.

Isolated incidents, perhaps, and subject now to investigations amid claims of looting and police acting in self-defence (the graphic Nairobi photographs offer a different story), but for Kenyan citizens the incidents are extremely worrying. There are few who do not recall the violence that followed disputed elections in 2007, when at least 1,200 people died in violent clashes that also displaced some 60,000.

This raw memory together with the current turn of events have prompted the Catholic Church, and other faith partners in the country to take a strong stand in the developing political vacuum.

Reacting to the May 23 killings, the head of the Church in Kenya, Cardinal John Njue, issued a call for immediate dialogue between President Kenyatta’s Jubilee coalition and Mr Odinga’s Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD).

“We believe an urgent political solution is required to avert a crisis that could complicate the next elections and plunge the country into violence,” a statement from Cardinal Njue stressed, a statement backed by the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), the National Muslim Leaders Forum (NAMLEF), the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya (CIPK), the Organisation of African Instituted Churches (OAIC), the Hindu Council of Kenya (HCK), the Seventh Day Adventist Church (SDA) and the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya (EAK). 

All were united in stating: “The leading role of the two major political parties, especially the dispute around the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), is a threat to national peace, cohesion and unity of Kenyans. For the love of our country, come and reason together.”

The result thus far can only be described as mixed.

Just days after the demonstration of religious solidarity, meetings were quickly arranged on all sides, with Catholic representatives engaging in early talks with Mr Odinga at which they asked for an end to the protests to promote dialogue. 

A similar meeting was held with members of the IEBC to sound out a reasonable solution to the issue of its membership. Finally, on June 3, President Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto met with faith leaders in Nairobi. At that meeting, the faith representatives urged the political leaders to offer a commitment of talks with the opposition, as the only peaceful solution to matters. In all of the meetings, the parties assured the religious delegation that talks were the acceptable approach.

Then came June 6. On that Monday, and despite the earlier calls for a rowing back on protests, anti-IEBC protestors again took to the streets, this time in Kisumu in the country’s west. Street blockades and tyre burnings were met once again with extreme force, and two demonstrators were shot dead.

Seeking an explanation for events, Bishop Cornelius Arap Korir, head of the bishops’ conference Justice and Peace Commission met with Mr Odinga to be told that although CORD had already named its team for peaceful negotiations, the government was fudging and offering no progress on talks. 

Troublesome

This must have been especially troublesome for Bishop Korir; in 2007 he oversaw the sheltering in his cathedral in Eldoret of many Kenyans displaced by the post-election violence. Doubtless spurred by this, the bishop offered an unshakable vow to draw the parties together.

The efforts of Bishop Korir and his faith companions – described as “tireless” by local media – look set to be the vital component in the coming weeks and months. Just last weekend, a counter demonstration against Mr Odinga was driven off by police firing into the air, that protest was a sure sign that pro-government forces are becoming emboldened. Equally, the ill-fated legal attempt to have protests outlawed – they are protected under the Constitution – will have done little but convince the opposition that the government will use foul means to thwart its aims on the IEBC. And from behind the massed ranks, Messrs Kenyatta and Odinga exchange strongman taunts of continued protests and challenges to “protest at your own peril”.

For Kenya’s sake, the efforts of the Church and its faith partners must succeed.