Leaders from seven
Christian churches on Thursday met Cord and Okoa Kenya Movement officials to
discuss issues they would like addressed in the proposed referendum.
Bishops Boniface Adoyo,
John Obonyo, Jonathan Soi, Ochenge Masak and Philip Ngetich, and Reverends
Bernard Amianda and Japheth Koech held talks with Cord's Raila Odinga, Kalonzo
Musyoka and Okoa Kenya Committee of Experts chairman Paul Mwangi.
The church leaders
presented a memorandum calling for the creation of a Christian regulatory
commission mandated to pursue the needs of Kenya's Christian community.
“It is advisable to
give the Christian community a commission with requisite judicial roles that
can mitigate specific cases that relate to Christian faith and do not necessarily
need to be taken to public courts,” the church leaders said.
The commission, the
church leaders also said, would vet prospective churches, register and regulate
them.
The church leaders want
the constitution to create an equivalent of the Kadhi’s Court to handle issues
affecting Christians.
Presenting the
memorandum, Bishop Adoyo said a number of laws with direct impacts on Christian
bylaws and belief systems are coming up in Parliament.
“The enactment of laws
that touch on Christianity in the absence of a regulatory consent from the
churches will ultimately strain interactions between the Church and the
government of Kenya,” the leaders' said in the memorandum.
He gave Marriage Act
(2014) as an example.
They leaders expressed
concern over a new requirement that they pay before being allowed to conduct
marriages. They said that pastors marry people on behalf of the State and find
it strange that they are being taxed for it.
In response, Raila,
Cord leader, urged the religious leaders to speak out against the ills in Kenya
and not fear raising issues they feel should be tackled in the proposed
referendum.
“All we are interested
in is a good constitution. So let us walk together. This country needs healing
and good laws can ensure that. Moving on without healing will not work,” Raila
said.
Kalonzo asked the
leaders to fight tribalism and exclusion in particular.
The church leaders
appealed for a categorical ban on abortion, whose case they said have
increased. Kalonzo said some of the cases could be as a result of the
"despair and uncertainties" Kenyans are facing.
The leaders agreed to
continue consulting on the matter. The committee of experts said the church
leaders should expect a proposal on how the issues will be captured in the
proposed amendment in about two weeks.
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