Henry Makori*
I would like to comment on the recent statement by the Catholic Bishops of Kenya on insecurity in the country. I found the statement rather interesting. Unknown people detonated explosives at a prayer-cum-political rally at Uhuru Park, Nairobi, on the evening of Sunday, June 13, causing a stampede in which six people died and over a hundred were reportedly injured.
That evening, fresh television footage from the park showed Protestant and Evangelical preachers who had conducted the rally fiercely accusing the government of being responsible for the attacks. They argued that because the rally was also used to drum up opposition to the Proposed Constitution of Kenya which goes to a referendum on August 4th, the government (which champions the 'Yes' side) must have had something to do with the terrible blasts.
The following day the Protestant and Evangelical church leaders issued a statement titled, ‘We hold government responsible’. The statement repeated the claims made the evening before. “We indeed consider that the attack was a pre-meditated aggression on democracy; a cowardly act seemingly aimed at scaring Kenyans from expressing their right to oppose the proposed constitution. Having been informed over and over that the passage of the new constitution during the referendum is a government project, we are left in no doubt that the government, either directly or indirectly, had a hand in this attack,” the statement said.
“We therefore hold the government and the Yes team responsible for the attack and for the blood that was shed unless they prove to Kenyans that someone else planted and detonated the devices.”
So, the Government of Kenya and the 'Yes' people were presumed guilty until proven innocent. Excellent jurisprudence, church!
The Catholic bishops’ statement issued four days later endorsed those sentiments - never mind that neither the Evangelical and Protestant preachers nor the bishops provided any evidence to corroborate the claim. The bishops said they were “surprised and shocked that someone decided to exonerate the government from this barbaric act without first waiting for the findings of the investigation of the police.” In the bishops’ wisdom, then, the government should have said nothing about serious criminal allegations made against it until police investigations proved it innocent. Did the church leaders themselves wait for any police investigations before pointing fingers?
Like the other church leaders, the bishops also concluded, as they waited for police investigations, that the blasts were meant to intimidate those opposed to the Proposed Constitution. “We wish to categorically state that we shall not be intimidated; neither shall our resolve to oppose this flawed draft be dented,” they said. On what grounds was this conclusion reached?
More curiously, while the church leaders have been swift to condemn the blasts at Uhuru Park, none of them has come out to denounce open hate speech and incitement by certain leaders opposed to the Proposed Constitution of Kenya. Some of the leaders have already appeared in court. There are also vernacular radio stations peddling what amounts to hate speech, but these too have not been censured by the clergy. Is it because the hate speech and incitement charges are linked to leaders of the No campaign which the church leaders support?
It appears so. In response to a campaign against hate speech by the National Cohesion and Integration Commission which has resulted in the arrest and arraignment in court of some politicians opposed to the Proposed Constitution, Protestant and Evangelical leaders issued a statement on Monday - not to condemn the hate speech and incitement widely reported by the media - but to accuse the NCIC of “selective application of the hate speech law”.
All this is, to say the least, shocking. Have church leaders resorted to blatant propaganda in their campaign against the Proposed Constitution of Kenya ahead of the referendum?
Time will surely tell.
*Henry Makori is editor of Expression Today, a publication of The Media Institute, Nairobi, Kenya
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this section do not necessarily represent the opinions of CISA.
