|
Church leaders differ on
post-poll violence
Story by SUNDAY NATION Team
Publication Date: 1/27/2008
The debate on whether the violence that erupted in the country
after last year’s General Election was pre-arranged or not has
drawn mixed reactions from the clergy.
Forty Catholic priests drawn from eight districts of Gusiiland
said the violence was pre-arranged, claims that were denied by
their counterparts from the North Rift.
The clerics in Kisii said information from victims indicated the
violence was organised well ahead of the elections.
“We have shocking revelations from those displaced indicating that
long before elections, they had received verbal threats to move
out or face consequences,” said Kisii Catholic Diocese Vicar
General Joseph Obanyi who read a statement on behalf of his
colleagues at St Vincent Centre yesterday.
The priests also criticised the government for failing to
guarantee the security of Kenyans.
But while denying these allegations, clerics from Rift Valley said
the violence was mainly sparked off by the disputed presidential
election results.
“If the violence was pre-planned in Rift Valley, how about that in
Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and other towns outside the province.
Was it planned by leaders from the area?” asked their spokesman Dr
Simeon Kipyego.
Speaking at Hotel Sirikwa minutes after similar denials by
professionals from the region, the clergymen called for the
resignation of ECK commissioners.
They said the dispute over the poll results could only be resolved
through an election re-run.
“The country is more divided than ever before and the only way to
solve this problem is for various leaders including those in the
church, ECK and the police to own up that they failed the country
and a re-run held,” they said in their statement.
In Nairobi, bishops and pastors of 20 evangelical churches asked
the government to firmly enforce the law and stop the continuing
ethnic-based violence.
The church leaders said local and international mediation efforts
already in place were welcome but the government must stop the
killings.
|
