Category Archives: Religion

USA, MN: There is hope for the future.

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from DAVID ADAWO

Destiny Faith Ministries cordially invites you to their 4th annual Interdenominational Conference as from 8/25/2011 to 8/28/2011 to be held at Brooklyn ark Junior High School, 7377 Noble Avenue North, Brooklyn Park, MN, 55443. The event will be free. The theme is Launching into the deep for a catch. Luke 5:4.
The guest Speaker will be Dr. Stephen George of Beam Ministries( Texas) a worldwide minister of the gospel heavily used in healing ministry, prophetic ministry, bible exposition, word of knowledge just to mention a few, he will be assisted by other dynamic speakers from around the town.
Attend this four days of great revival, refreshing times and impartation of hope for the future and your life will never be the same again.
God bless you all.

for more information please visit www.destinyfaithministries.org or call

Pastor James Maina @ 612-306-9859Pastor Russell Doe @ 651-285-1740Robby @ 832-577-3781David @ 612-298-5763
Haron Ondigi @ 612-481-7620
God bless you as you plan to attend this landmark conference of a lifetime.

“I shall pass through this life but once, If there is any good I can do let me do it now, for I shall not pass this way again….”
adamark

Kenya: WHO WILL SAVE OUR CHILDREN FROM SINS OF THE FLESH AND DRUG ABUSE?

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Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News
from ouko joachim omolo

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAKURU-KENYA
THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2011
NAKURU WORKSHOP TAKE-4

Rev Fr Richard Quinn, MM, Blessed John Paul II Evangelizing Parish Teams Spiritual Director is hosting more than fifty participants in a workshop which begins today through Sunday at Nakuru St Mary’s Catholic Pastoral Center.

The workshop whose aim is to promote and protect African family values will attract married couples, youth, University and College students with Kenyatta University representing the majority.

As Regional News already reported, this year the focus is going to be mainly on our youth and children-how parents, teachers, churches and mentors can assist them maintain and embrace these values-how they can desist from dangers that negate these values among others.

In Europe, US and developed countries the secularism has taken over the family values-that is why they prefer to marry same sex-youths in these countries are confused, they do not know who turn to for help and guidance.

In Spain some Roman Catholic priests are using the youth to protest against Pope Benedict XVI visit-a chemistry student working as a volunteer for the pope’s visit to Madrid was arrested on suspicion of planning a gas attack targeting protesters opposed to the pontiff’s stay.

Pope Benedict XVI is due to arrive today for a nearly four-day visit to celebrate World Youth Day. Thousands of protesters railing against his visit marched Wednesday through central Madrid to the central Sol plaza, where they have held months of demonstrations against the government’s anti-austerity policies.

The workshop is coming at the time fear is spreading in Tanzania that some six religious leaders are recruiting youth in drug trafficking deals. According to Inspector General of Police Mr Mwema, legal action awaits the six religious leaders who confessed to being involved in drug trafficking. The clerics made the confession before the Ethics Committee for Religious Leaders and Community Privileges last month.
Mr Mwema according to media report made the remarks in answer to a question by a journalist who sought to know the position of the police on the clerics who have admitted being involved in the trade in illicit drugs and are involving youth. The clerics report says made the surprise confession after they were interrogated by the police, pleading for protection for fear of losing face before their followers.

Existing laws and systems provide for stringent punitive measures against all those involved in illicit drugs, regardless of whether the suspects are religious leaders, journalists, doctors, political party leaders or police officers.

Roman Catholic Cardinal Polycarp Pengo on Sunday demanded that the government name religious leaders it said were involved in drug trafficking, referring to President Jakaya Kikwete’s allegations that some religious leaders were involved in the illicit trade.

President Kikwete who was speaking at the ordination of Mbinga Catholic Bishop John Ndimbo, said some clerics had been involving young Tanzanians in the business, by helping them to acquire passports to facilitate their travels during drugs peddling.

Although this is the third time the cardinal has publicly challenged the authorities to reveal the names of the drug culprits, in 2009 the Vatican removed from office Bishop Jakob Koda of Same Catholic Diocese in Kilimanjaro region for alleged violation of church moral teachings.

While the Vatican did not elaborate on what type of violation of moral teachings of the church, local press reported quoted bishop Koda to have accused another unnamed bishop of engineering his ouster, alleging that he was a Freemason member whose movement is identified with drugs and were involving young people in the deal.

The Vatican Apostolic Nuncio to Tanzania Archbishop Joseph Chennoth was quoted to have told the ‘Daily News’ in Dar es Salaam that Bishop Koda has now been ‘advised to take time for rest, reflection and personal study.

The committee’s Chairman, Rev William Mwamalanga of the Pentecostal Church of Tanzania was reported to have said that the full list includes 18 prominent business people and politicians “but all names will be submitted to the anti-narcotics unit”.

It is easier for young people to peddle on the drugs given that Tanzania is still being used as a transit route for illicit drugs despite the ongoing international campaign to stop the spread of narcotics.

A Kenyan woman has been arrested in Dar es Salaam just few months ago for possession of three kilogrammes of heroin worth millions of shillings. Rebecca Wanjiku, 48 was apprehended at the Ubungo upcountry bus terminal in the city allegedly in the process of trying to transport the narcotics to South Africa.

Last year controversial Jamaican Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal sneaked to Kenya via Tanzania border. It demonstrates how easy it is to pass Tanzanian border without being noticed. Kenyan officials said al-Faisal travelled from Nigeria through Angola, Malawi, Swaziland, Mozambique and Tanzania by road before entering Kenya.

According to a report made available to The Express Newspaper by the International Narcotics Board, illicit drugs for abuse have been passing through Tanzanian entry points unabated. The report said that Tanzania was a good centre for drugs in transit to other African and world countries where consumption is much higher. It said other African nations notable for drug trafficking are Mozambique, Kenya and South Africa.

While delivering homily during the AMECEA meeting in Nairobi, Kenya last month, Cardinal Pengo admitted that devil worship had taken root in the Catholic Church, wondering why this could take place in the holy church of Christ.

When devil worshipping was very rampant in Kenya in the 1990s, it was reported that young people were involved for sexual orgies. The report said they drunk human blood, used sex as spiritual climax. Young people were asked to strip naked at night in dark rooms so that adults could have sexual orgies with them.

The report further alleged that they were introducing the worship in boarding schools where students were promised to be assisted financially if they accepted to join the practice and introduce it to other students.

Daily Nation reported on June 6, 2010 that when Philip Onyancha was a Form One student at Kenyatta Mahiga High School in Nyeri, then President Daniel arap Moi appointed a commission to inquire into devil worship in Kenya.

At that time, the country was throbbing with claims of widespread devil worship with some reports linking the practice to people in high places. The commission headed by Archbishop Nicodemus Kirima, was appointed in March 1995 when Onyancha was in his first term in secondary school. Onyancha claimed to have killed 17 people.

The team had been established to investigate whether there were devil worship cults in Kenya and whether they were linked to drug abuse and other anti-social activities. The report was not made public until 1999 when the Nation published parts of the findings that had been selectively released to religious organizations.

“Devil worshippers are usually wealthy and prominent people who drive expensive cars. Some of them own large commercial enterprises,” the report claimed in parts.
The report said devil worshippers use their wealth to attract new members and gave graphic details of initiation rites including eating human flesh and licking blood.

In the case of Onyancha, his former teachers at Kenyatta Mahiga said he was a bright student for the first two years, but his performance declined in the final two. It is not clear if the school made any effort to investigate the cause. The report said some satanists had even infiltrated the Kenya Students Christian Fellowship to recruit members.

Some of the devil worship rituals in the commission’s report include: human sacrifice, drinking human blood, eating human flesh, nudity of the participants in the ritual, incantations in unintelligible language, sexual abuse, especially of children; black magic, narcotic drugs and presence of snakes. Body parts such as tongues, eyes and limbs are also used in the rituals.

In Tanzania 25 people with albinism have been reportedly murdered since March. Albinos are targeted for body parts that are used in witchcraft. The latest victim was a seven-month-old baby. He was mutilated on the orders of a witchdoctor peddling the belief that potions made from an albino’s legs, hair, hands, and blood can make a person rich. There are estimated to be about 17,000 albino people living in Tanzania. They lack pigment in their skin and appear pale.

It is very unfortunate that all the abuses are targeted on youth and children. Today for example, the sex abuse cases which were initially a problem only for national bishops’ conferences, particularly in the United States, Ireland and Germany, have merged into a crisis for the entire Catholic Church, Africa included.
People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail- ppa@africaonline.co.ke
omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

SPAIN: BIG CHALLENGE AS PRIESTS PROTEST OVER POPE’S VISIT TO MADRID

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Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News
From: People For Peace

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ

NAIROBI-KENYA

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST10, 2011

The more than 100 priests from Madrid’s poorest parishes who have joined the clamour of protest over the cost of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Madrid next week reminds me of the Biblical story where the disciples of Jesus complained to him when Mary Magdalene anointed his feet with expensive oil. The disciples complained to Jesus saying that oil would have been sold and money given to the poor.
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Jesus answered them saying the poor people are always with you but myself will not be with you for long -so let the woman play her part. Of course, the different here is that the disciples of Jesus were rich so they did not need the money, but here are the priests who are just poor like their flocks and need money direly.

You have heard priests fighting in a parish over the offertory-they do that because they are poor and need money. Sometimes offertories are not even enough for parish priest himself-leave alone his curate. Some priests cannot even be able to pay efficient salaries for his workers.

You have also heard of priests who indulge in alcoholism because they are stressed. Their family members at home depend on them, paying school fees for his siblings, children of his diseased brothers, sisters, cousins and relatives. When he is not bale to do all these he is either stressed or become very aggressive and alcohol is used to cope up with the stress.

An umbrella group – the Priests’ Forum – says the estimated €60 million cost of the papal visit, not counting security, cannot be justified at a time of massive public sector cuts and 20 per cent unemployment in Spain.

Evaristo Villar (68), a member of the group, said he objected to the multinationals with which the Catholic Church had had to ally itself to cover the costs of the “showmanship” of the event when majority of Spanish faithful cannot afford copping up with high cost of life.

Opponents of the visit have set up a Facebook page calling for a boycott of the sponsors. Some 140 groups, among them the secular organisation Europa Laica (Secular Europe), are also against the papal visit.

Fr Europa Laica plans to march under the slogans “Not a penny of my taxes for the Pope” and “For a secular state”. There is particular ire that the some 500,000 pilgrims expected in the city will get free transport. Madrid metro fares rose by 50 per cent on Monday.

“With the economic crisis we are going through, we can’t pay for this. The church should set the example,” said a spokesman for the Indignados movement, which has staged high-profile protests in central Madrid. “They propose to spend €60 million when the regional government has just cut €40 million from the education budget.”

This is not the first time Pope Benedict’s visit has been protested. His visit to Barcelona last November was poorly received, with the popemobile forced to drive at top speed past small groups of the faithful along mainly deserted streets (Guardian service).

There was similar complain last year when senior Vatican officials who accompanied the Pope on his historic visit to Britain stayed in a luxury hotel where rooms cost up to £900 a night – courtesy of UK taxpayers.

The Government confirmed it met the accommodation bill for 11 members of Pope Benedict XVI’s entourage during the visit from September 16-19, 2010. The Government had also decided to give all 11 a daily spending allowance of £150 for the trip.

The money had been set aside for expenses such as food, dry cleaning, UK telephone calls and drinks – as long as they were not from the hotel mini-bar. Some critics had questioned why the Government had to pay so much when the Roman Catholic Church has a reported fortune of around £30billion. The hotel is close to Westminster and boasts a swimming pool and 24-hour room service. The event was the first visit to Britain by a Pope since 1982.

The pope is scheduled to visit Madrid next week to lead World Youth Day celebrations, which take place August 16-21. More than one million faithful are expected to flock to the Spanish capital for the Roman Catholic Church’s youth festivities.

According to Caritas Spain the economic crisis has seen a jump in Spanish people needing help by 40 percent in the first six months of 2008. According to a nationwide survey carried out by Caritas among vulnerable people, the charity predicts it will top 50 percent by the end of the year.

According to the Caritas survey, those asking for more help are single mothers, unemployed over 40 years with low qualifications, young families with small children, and migrant women looking for their first job when their husbands are out of work.

The life has become so difficult to them to the extent that the Caritas Spain’s Secretary General Silverio Agea has called for more support, “In difficult times, our people respond with generosity. Caritas knows from its own experience that there are many people ready to share in order to reach out to those who are more disadvantaged”.

“Poverty is immoral because it has a solution. More public spending if we are to uproot poverty. Let us not forget that with the money the world spends in perfumes or in arms it would be possible to end the scourge of poverty.”

Caritas Spain has supported nearly 1 million people in Spain (it also helps over 9 million in developing countries). Over 200 million euro have been spent by Caritas Spain in its actions against social exclusion inside Spain and overseas. They included programmes with the elderly (29.7 million euro), employment and social integration (23.5 million), and the homeless (16.5 million).

The World Youth Day celebrations were instituted by Pope John Paul II in 1986 as a way to revitalize the faith among young Catholics. It was in Spain once before, in 1989 in the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela.

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel 254-20-4441372
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

POPE BENEDICT PRAYS FOR SPANISH YOUTH

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Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

from People For Peace

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2011

Pope Benedict XVI’s general intention this month is for the World Youth Day taking place in Madrid from August 15-21, 2011. He prays that the world youth day may encourage all the young people of the world to root and found their lives in Christ.

His missionary intention is that Christians of the West, docile to the action of the Holy Spirit, may re-encounter the freshness and enthusiasm of their faith-click here to read Spanish Episcopal Conference’s WYD Invitation

The prayer is being offered at the time abortion among the youth is increasingly worrying. Abortion was fully legalized on July 5, 2010. According to new government study released in 2006 shows the rate of abortion has increased among Spanish young people.

According to the Spanish news agency EFE, the National Institute for Statistics reports that abortions among women under 19 in Spain rose to 8.8 abortions for every 1,000 women, up from 5.5 for every 1,000 women in 1995.

The government report confirms the findings of the Institute of Family Policy (IFP), which reported that in Spain approximately one in every six pregnancies ended in abortion, and one in seven abortions were carried out by women under 19. IFP also reported that the largest percentage of Spanish women aborting were under 24 in 2003.

Even though the Roman Catholic Church in Spain has denied it condones the use of condoms as a way of combating the Aids virus, the fact remains that due to abortion rates among the youth which have risen concomitantly, the government has publicly and massive lobbying for “safe sex” programs and promotion of condom use over the years.

While Spanish laws officially restrict abortion to situations involving rape, malformation of the baby, or threats to the physical or mental health of the mother, nearly 95.7 percent of all abortions are justified for concern for the mother’s health, while 2.5 percent are for fetal deformity, and just 0.1 percent for rape.

Recent surveys also show the number of practicing Catholics is dropping fast, to around 20 percent currently despite the fact that 94 percent of Spaniards are Catholic. Mass attendance has dropped from 44 percent in 1980 to only 19 percent in 2008.

Spain, of course, is not the only European nation to have largely abandoned the Faith. 2008 attendance among German Catholics was at 22 percent, among the French only 12 percent, and in the Netherlands a minuscule 7 percent of Catholics attended Mass weekly.

Apart from abortion, the Spanish parliament also approved a same-sex marriage law in 2005. Spain’s action follows similar moves by the Netherlands and Belgium, where same-sex marriage has been legal. Same-sex marriage officially became legal in Spain on Sunday, 3 July 2005.

Although the Spanish law also gives same-sex couples the right to adopt children and receive inheritances, Catholic authorities are adamantly opposed to it, fearing the weakening of the meaning of marriage. Pope Benedict XVI has condemned gay marriage as an expression of “anarchic freedom” that threatens the future of the family.

Approximately 4,500 same-sex couples have married in Spain during the first year of the law. At least one partner must be a Spanish citizen to marry, although two non-Spaniards may marry if they both have legal residence in Spain.

Jobless is yet another big problem among the youth in Spain, to the extent that tens of thousands of Spaniards angry over joblessness went to the street to protest in cities all over the country.

Although Spain has no official religion, the constitution of 1978 disestablished the Roman Catholic Church as the official state religion, while recognizing the role it plays in Spanish society. According to the National Institute of Statistics (April 2010), 73.2 percent of the population are Catholic, 2.3 percent belong to another religion, 14.6 percent are agnostic, and 7.6 percent are atheists.

Spain has maintained its special identification with Latin America. Its policy emphasizes the concept of Hispanidad, a mixture of linguistic, religious, ethnic, cultural, and historical ties binding Spanish-speaking America to Spain.

With the Third Council of Toledo in 859 Catholicism became the official religion of Spain despite the fact that article 3 of this Constitution established that Spain has no official religion. This aspect was one of the reasons that led to the coup d’état followed by a bloody civil war between 1936 and 1939.

But even so the Spanish system is neither a denominational model nor a separatist model in the strict sense. It can be characterised by two ideas: the idea of some recognition of religious groups by the state and secondly the idea of religious freedom.

The treatment of religious groups can be described as a pyramidal structure. At the first level there is the Catholic Church which receives maximum rights with the help of Concordats.

The second level consists of minority religious communities having signed agreements. At the third level there are registered minority religious communities and finally those having no specific legal status.

In Spain there are no Theological Faculties in the State Universities. But you can find four Universities of the Catholic Church (Salamanca, Navarre, Deusto and Comillas) having a specific status regulated by the Agreement of 5 April 1962. Other religious groups can establish universities in the same way as any other body or individual.

Every religious group has the right to set up television stations, radio or press.

The Catholic Church is in contrast to all other religious groups financed directly by the State. All religious communities having signed an agreement are treated as non-profit organisations. Due to this regulation they profit from certain tax advantages. In Spain we can find only one class of matrimony: the civil matrimony. But there are certain different forms such as the civil, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Islamic form.

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel 254-20-4441372
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

KENYA BISHOPS ACT ON FOOD CRISIS AFTER THE POPE’S CALL ON MOBILIZATION

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from ouko joachim omolo

Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 2011

Agenzia Fides reports that the Bishops of Kenya launch an emergency fund to help people affected by drought-“We are all deeply concerned about the crisis caused by drought and suffering of so many Kenyans.

Our concern is for the millions of vulnerable people who risk dying of hunger and for the many communities that have lost their livelihoods “, the Bishops of Kenya say in a statement and launch a national fund-raising for the people affected by drought that has raged in several East-African Countries.

If the most dramatic situation is in Somalia, Kenya also heavily suffers the food crisis, not only because it hosts on its territory hundreds of thousands of Somalis escaping from their Country, but also because the drought has affected several areas of its territory.

The message of the Episcopal Conference of Kenya states that the most vulnerable people are: the shepherds of the north, north-east, north-west and south, and the poorest families living on subsistence farming in the coastal plains and south-eastern regions.

The drought, caused by very little rain in 2010 and, this year has caused, the Bishops recall, “food shortages, sharp rise in food prices, lack of water, migration and conflict, malnutrition, school dropout on behalf of children and loss of livestock”.

The Episcopal Conference of Kenya has decided to launch an emergency fund (Catholic Charity Emergency Fund) and has launched a fund-raising in favor of this initiative. Food collections in parishes, diocesan offices and other structures of the Church have been organized. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 04/08/2011)

The Episcopal Conference of Kenya ‘s move comes three days after Pope Benedict XVI called for an “international mobilization” to help the victims of a severe drought in Eastern Africa, which has been hit by drought and is now threatened by a famine that could endanger the life of more than 11.8 million people.

Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are the countries the most hit by the drought. Speaking from his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, Italy, the pope invited the faithful “to think of the many brothers and sisters who in these days, in the Horn of Africa, are suffering the dramatic consequences of famine, aggravated by war and the absence of solid institutions.”

In Kenya the famine is biting harder when the Kenyan shilling fell to a record low of 92.10 against the dollar on Thursday, weighed down by demand for the US currency from oil importers according to traders.

At 0624 GMT, commercial bank quoted the shilling at 92.00/20 against the dollar, weaker than Wednesday’s close of 91.65/75. “We have seen heavy demand this week. Telecoms were in and we also saw oil guys buying dollars,” Duncan Kinuthia, head of trading at Commercial Bank of Africa was quoted to have said. “Still the shilling is on the back foot. We don’t see any factors supporting it.”

In northern Kenya according to Fatuma Ahmed, some people go as far selling their daughters at a tender age so they can get food. Prolonged drought in northern Kenya has pushed many families, like widow Ahmed and her seven children, towards the outskirts of towns where they are more likely to get food and water, thanks to the generosity of Kenyans who have so far donated over 100 million Kenya shillings.

Dubbed Kenyans for Kenya, it is intended to raise over Sh500 million, in four weeks. The initiative has brought together a number of organizations among them Safaricom Foundation, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Foundation and the country’s leading media houses operating under the umbrella of the Media Owners Association (MOA). The effort will be administered by relief agency Kenya Red Cross Society.

The KCB Group CEO Dr. Martin Oduor – Otieno was quoted to have said that KCB is ready to support initiatives that would help to alleviate famine in the country. “KCB through the KCB Foundation is delighted to be part of this noble initiative bringing together the Kenya Red Cross Society, corporate organizations and the media in support of Kenyans hard hit by famine. In addition, we are also mobilizing our 5,000 staff to make individual contributions,” said Dr Oduor-Otieno.

Also key to the campaign is the use of M-PESA, Safaricom’s money transfer service to receive donations. This will ensure that even the smallest donation (as low as Sh10) is harnessed, as this will go a long way in improving the situation of millions of Kenyans currently staring starvation and death in the eye.

Donations can be sent to the M-PESA PayBill number 111111 at no charge as this has been waived. Donations can also be sent to account number 11 33 33 33 38 at KCB. Kenya Red Cross Society cash tins will also be available in 169 KCB branches countrywide for receiving donations.

The famine crisis in Kenya has already received unprecedented media coverage especially from the international media due to the influx of refugees in Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps. The corporate appeal comes at a time when the United Nations (UN) has also called an emergency meeting in Rome to mobilise aid so save starving Kenyans from hunger.

According to Ahmed young girls are being sold for as little as 15,000 Kenyan shillings ($168) “If he’s wealthy, it can go up to 50,000 ($559),” “A mother will take a 14-year-old girl out of school and sell her to a man – even an old man – to get money to give the other children food,” according to a local chief. “Some households have 10 children and feeding those children is really hard.”

Enrolment in his local primary school has dropped to 210 children from 350 since the drought started to bite last year. “Over a hundred have been removed because of hunger,” the chief told Reuters.

According to the United Nations, only one in five girls in North Eastern Province attend school. Aid agency World Vision is unable to trace 400 of the 3,060 children it sponsors in the district. Some have been sent to stay with better-off relatives who can feed them. Some are working as maids in people’s houses or in food kiosks. But others are married off “just to make sure that the rest of the family does not die from lack of food”, said Jacob Alemu, World Vision’s local programme manager.

It is not the first time the Pope expressed its fears regarding the situation in East Africa as on July 17, he spoke about the humanitarian catastrophe. “Countless people are fleeing terrible famine in search of food and assistance,” the pope told the crowd gathered in the courtyard of his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo.
“May those who suffer not lack our solidarity,” the pope said.

In Somalia, the areas most affected by the drought are under the control of an Islamist militant group, al-Shabaab, which has banned western aid agencies, forcing people to flee to the capital Mogadishu, where the U.N.-backed government is struggling to fight off armed groups. In Somalia, 3.7 million people are in crisis, out of a population of 7.5 million. The UN said 3.2 million need immediate lifesaving assistance.

This is taking place at the same time Kenyan Foreign Affairs Assistant minister Richard Onyonka was today (Thursday) grilled by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) detectives over the purchase of sugar worth Sh137 million using CDF cash.

Mr Onyonka, who is also the Kitutu Chache MP, is alleged to have used CDF funds to purchase sugar worth Sh137,058,429 from Chemilil Sugar Company and did not remit VAT worth Sh18.5 million to the Kenya Revenue Authority.

KENYA: THE PAIN AND AGONY OF SEXUAL ABUSE

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from ouko joachim omolo

Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
THURSDAY, AUGUST4, 2011

It was too painful as two Maltese priests were sentenced on Monday August 1, 2011 to 5 and 6 years in prison after they were convicted of sexually abusing boys under their care in a Catholic Church home for children more than 20 years ago. The 11 boys were aged between 13 and 16 when the abuse took place in St Joseph’s Home in the late 1980s. The victims are now in their late 30s.

Fr Charles Pulis was sentenced Monday to 6 years while Fr Godwin Scerri was jailed for 5 for abusing an undisclosed number of children. The judgment, bringing to an end an eight-year court case, was delivered in a packed courtroom as the two priests stood quietly in the dock.

Last year a Roman Catholic priest committed suicide after he was informed that he would be suspended pending an investigation of his alleged sexual abuse of a minor 29 years ago according to the Diocese of Portland’s report.

Fr James Robichaud, 56, body was found Friday morning in the rectory of Our Lady of the Snows in Dover-Foxcroft. Robichaud died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The abuse was alleged to have occurred around the time Robichaud, an Augusta native, was ordained in 1979 and assigned to St. Jean-Baptiste Parish in Lowell, Mass.

The 21-year-old, an American actress and pop singer-songwriter, Miley Ray Cyrus was in pain on Monday when it was discovered that someone bragged online and hacked her email and distributing revealing pictures of the then 15-year-old singer.

Miley Cyrus who has thrown her support behind gay marriage with a new tattoo of an equal sign, saying that all love is equal made recent headlines with her cover of the classic Fleetwood Mac song “Landslide.”

On Tuesday August 2, 2011, IRIN reported painful story of two brothers, Charles and Jacques who set off for Uganda in search of safety after the murder of their parents in January in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), only to be waylaid along the border by six men carrying machetes, sticks and guns, who took them into the forest and raped them, leaving them unconscious.

Months after eventually finding their way to Kampala, the Ugandan capital, the brothers are physically and psychologically traumatized. “There is no hope, and sometimes it leads us to hate life,” Charles, the elder, told IRIN.

Jacques is visibly in pain as he leans on his chair. “It hurts here where I got raped. Sometimes when I go to the bathroom, I suffer for hours. Before, blood flowed [from the anus], now it’s getting better but the pain is very strong,” he said, adding that he undergoes a lot of mental torment. “I can go for days without speaking to anyone.”

An estimated 23.6 percent of men from the eastern DRC regions of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu have been exposed to sexual violence during their lifetime, according to an August 2010 study by the Association of Sexual Violence and Human Rights Violations With Physical and Mental Health in Territories of the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) [ http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/304/5/553.full.pdf+html?sid=1b583375-0736-444b-a4bc-2428257953d1 ].

And as Nation reports, John Mwenda was just eight years old when he was sodomised by a man old enough to be his father. For 16 years, this 24 year old man has kept this horrible secret to himself, shackled by shame, embarrassment, and fear of how people might treat him, should he speak out.

This is the first time that Mwenda is talking about what happened to him all those years ago. The physical scars healed a long time ago, but the emotional and psychological ones still torture him. He hopes that by talking about it, he will finally discover the path towards healing, but more importantly, encourage other young men like him, and boys that are too scared to reveal the men that violate them, to speak out.

According to this sad and painful story by the Nation, Mwenda was on his home from school. The school he went to was several kilometers away, and many of the children he went to school with were from neighbourhood – only a few of them would take the long walk home, although he would walk the last one kilometer or so alone, since his home was further away.

As the story goes, it was on a Friday when it happened. He remembered because he was looking forward to the weekend, since he wouldn’t go to school. He was in class three. As he walked through the familiar path that would lead him home, a man he knew approached him. He often saw him in his village, so he knew him.

Mwenda comes from Tharaka district, in Meru. He greeted him, and then asked him where h went to school, and other questions that he doesn’t really recall. After a while, he got hold of his hand and led him into a bush. He must have wondered why he did that, although he did not suspect anything sinister because he knew him.

It was not until he pulled down his shorts that he knew he was about to do something very bad to him. He tried to scream, but he covered his mouth with one of his hands. He was too strong, so he couldn’t fight back.

When he was done, he zipped his trousers. Before he left, he threatened to beat him up, and then strangle him if he ever told anyone what he had done. Mwenda waited until his footsteps faded away, and then he pulled up his shorts. The pain was so excruciating, he had no idea how he was able to get back home.

Mwenda became withdrawn, and would have recurrent nightmares. Even at that young age of eight years, he wondered why someone he knew would want to do that to him. This is what pained him most.

In yet another harrowing report by Will Storr who travelled to Uganda to meet traumatised survivors of sexual abuse reveals how male rape is endemic in many of the world’s conflicts.

For four years Eunice Owiny had been employed by Makerere University’s Refugee Law Project (RLP) to help displaced people from all over Africa work through their traumas. This particular case, though, was a puzzle. A female client was having marital difficulties. “My husband can’t have sex,” she complained. “He feels very bad about this. I’m sure there’s something he’s keeping from me.”

Owiny invited the husband in. For a while they got nowhere. Then Owiny asked the wife to leave. The man then murmured cryptically: “It happened to me.” Owiny frowned. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an old sanitary pad. “Mama Eunice,” he said. “I am in pain. I have to use this.”

Laying the pus-covered pad on the desk in front of him, he gave up his secret. During his escape from the civil war in neighbouring Congo, he had been separated from his wife and taken by rebels. His captors raped him, three times a day, every day for three years.

And he wasn’t the only one. He watched as man after man was taken and raped. The wounds of one were so grievous that he died in the cell in front of him.” That was hard for me to take,” Owiny tells me today. “There are certain things you just don’t believe can happen to a man, you get me? But I know now that sexual violence against men is a huge problem. Everybody has heard the women’s stories. But nobody has heard the men’s.”

For example, a study of 6,000 concentration-camp inmates in Sarajevo found that 80 percent of men reported having been raped. This example demonstrates how scattered statistics of rape and defilement cases across the world it difficult to determine whether there has been an increase or decrease in rape cases in recent years.

In Nairobi Women’s Hospital alone is attending to approximately 2,500 cases of sexual and gender-based violence cases – with rape cases accounting for 21 percent – during post-election violence in the first three months of 2008, according to a 2010 report by the Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development, an international NGO.

This is not to mention the 2010 annual report from the Nairobi Gender Violence Recovery Center of the Nairobi Women’s Hospital that listed 2,487 survivors of gender-based violence, with rape or defilement accounting for 85 percent.
Still, most women in the slum do not report cases of rape for fear of stigma, according to a 2010 Amnesty International report on women’s experiences in Nairobi’s slums. Some women interviewed in the report also said that the legal procedure took too long.
As BBC reports, every day women turn up at the doors of Nairobi’s hospitals and clinics telling the same story. “I could not run away. They gagged my mouth and pinned me down,” one woman remembers. “After raping me they blindfolded me and led me to a nearby forest. That’s where they left me.”

Her experience – doctors, officials and the UN say – is echoed by hundreds of other women who have survived a spiralling number of sexual attacks. Many are gang rapes, carried out by groups of armed men.

Only a small percentage of women actually come to receive medical treatment and counselling in the immediate aftermath of a sexual attack. It means they do not get access to the drugs which might prevent the onset of HIV.

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya

Tel 254-20-4441372
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

KENYA: CHALLENGES OF HEALING WOUNDS OF VIOLENCE IN KENYA

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Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
WUNDANYI-TAITA TAVETA
TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2011

WUNDANYI WORKSHOP TAKE-4

The saying that man finds himself in trouble when all types of insects gang up against him, when the insects have vowed to punish him for killing one of their own makes reconciliation and healing in Kenya difficult. Especially when the butterfly distances himself from them and offers to help man to fight in the war waged against him.

At the end of our workshop on land and water security in Taita Taveta County, Catholic Archdiocese of Mombasa, we looked at challenges of reconciliation and healing the wounds of ethnic violences in Kenya. In order to reconcile and heal you must reconcile the wounds first.

It goess back to 1992 when Eldoret North Member of Parliament, Mr William Ruto was the deputy leader of Youth for KANU 92 assistant to Cyrus Jirongo. At the time the organization was formed, Ruto abandoned his Masters studies in zoology at the University of Nairobi to take advantage of the free money Moi was offering for his presidential bid.

Central Bank governor Eric Kotut, a fellow Kalenjin was forced to print paper money, in which the Kenyan taxpayer lost over Shs. 80 billion. Since then money has been heavily looted. Finance Minister who is also Kanu Chairman, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta was forced to earmark Sh1.11 billion towards the repayment of the debt the Central Bank printed for Moi’s 1992 campaign ‘comeback’ presidential bid.

Apart from Moi the government of Kibaki continues to make payments related to the Anglo-Leasing scandals. According to the latest audit report taxpayers’ money is being spent on servicing contentious debts, including Sh20 billion related to the Anglo-Leasing series of security contracts and Sh3 billion relating to the ‘ghost’ KenRen fertiliser factory.

Apart from Sh1.11 billion chaneled towards the repayment of the debt the Central Bank printed for Moi’s 1992 campaign, according to Controller and Auditor-General Anthony Gatumbu the payments of Anglo-Leasing alone have pushed the overall public debt to Sh1.17 trillion. So far, Sh3.1 billion has been spent on the KenRen project that was conceived in 1975 during the Kenyatta era when President Kibaki was Finance Minister.

As if that was not enough, some of the ministries including Internal Security of Prof George Saitoti who worked closely with Moi is not able to account for Sh953 million, State House (Sh10 million), Foreign Affairs of which Saititoti is the acting minister (Sh80 million), Home Affairs headed by former staunch Kanu follower during Moi, Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka-(Sh349 million) and Planning- National Development and Vision 2030 (Sh10 million).

Others are Finance headed by Uhuru myself-(Sh121 million), Defence by Yusuf Haji who was Moi right hand in 1990’s-(Sh197 million), Agriculture by Sally Kosgei who shed tears when Moi was forced out of office in 2002-(Sh768 million), Local Government by Muslia Mudavadi who was Moi Finance minister when Kotut printed money for campaign-(Sh2 billion), Roads by Franlin Bett who benefited a lot from Moi, especially in Mau forest land scandals-(Sh9 billion), Education by Prof Sam Ongeri who was Moi right wing in Kanu-(Sh319 million) and he Interim Independent Electoral Commission (Sh280 million).

The report says 15 ministries could not prove how they spent Sh6.9 billion, with the Public Health ministry headed by Uhuru Kenyatta relative Beth Mugo having the highest figure not supported by documentation and Roads ministry, which could not prove how it spent Sh889.6 million.

Others are Foreign Affairs (Sh743 million), Internal Security (Sh662 million), Special Programmes (Sh408 million) and Lands (Sh196 million). The report also lists Information and Communication (Sh59 million), Industrialisation (Sh90 million), Office of the Prime Minister headed by Raila Odinga (Sh59 million), Agriculture (Sh92 million), Finance (Sh10.5 million), Public Works (Sh28.7 million), Home Affairs (Sh3.7 million) and East African Community (Sh2 million).

The amount unaccounted for by Public Health officials is nearly seven times that unaccounted for by the closest culprit — Ministry of Education according to the Audit General’s report-it shows that by June 30, 2010, Education officials had outstanding imprests of Sh76.7 million. The Ministry of Internal Security and Provincial Administration completes the list of the top three ministries that had not accounted for their advances with a bill of Sh63.97 million.

Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta cannot fire his Permanent Secretary for failing audit tests and preparing falsified documents for Parliament because it is a deal, so to other corruption scandals. That is why only one out of 14 accounts has passed the audit test of the total amount of Kshs 714 billion for the two financial years.

Leave alone the year between1990 to 1993 when $600 million to $850 million “went missing. Olusegun Obsanjo, Nigeria’s former president estimates that just a few African strongmen now sit atop cash deposits of more than $20 billion in Swiss banks. This was about the same time more than $12 billion of Nigeria’s public funds went missing in recent years and is still unaccounted for.

This is not to mention a Sh251 billion mathematical error in the 2011-2012 Budget which Parliament’s Budget Committee has been alerted about. They were also notified notified of a repayment plan for a non-existent fertiliser factory, in which Sh1.2 billion would be paid out to an Austrian firm over the next three financial years.

It is against the background that the overall inflation rate has risen by 10.11 percentage points in seven months hitting 15.53 per cent in July 2011 up from 5.42 pc in January 2011. The rate stood at 14.49 per cent in June 2011 accordiding to the statistics released by Kenya National Bureau of Statistics for July 2011- Consumer Price Index increased by 1.27 per cent from 120.91 percent in June to 122.44 per cent in July.

It explains why the average price of a 2kg packet of sifted maize flour rose from Sh130 in June to Sh136 in July. Sugar price rose by 19.43 per cent from an average of Sh102.95 per kilogram in June to Sh122.38 in July.

Currently most Kenyans have experienced the pain of electricity rationing due to insufficient infrastructure, a relentless drought, and unusually high prices for petrol. According to Kenya Power, the country is facing a shortfall of between 70MW and 90MW at peak hours (6.30pm to 9.30pm), when most domestic consumers switch on electricity.

Arap Moi for example has been accused of using part of this money to fuel ethnic cleansing in October 1991 where a gang of youths -said to be from the Kalenjin ethnic group, armed with spears and machetes -attacked members of the Luo ethnic group living at Meitei farm in the south Nandi district of the Rift Valley Province.

In these attacks, thirty houses were burnt and some 4 000 people were left homeless. In November and December, fighting between the Luo and Kalenjin extended to Western and Nyanza Provinces, and in the process drew in members of the Luyhia and Kikuyu ethnic groups.

During the course of the December 1992 elections, there was a lull in fighting after which conflict restarted and escalated, now encompassing the Molo, Narok, Pokot, Londiani, Elburgon and Burnt Forest areas of the Rift Valley. The perpetrators of this latest violence expanded to include the Maasai and Pokot ethnic groups.

These attacks were aimed primarily at the Kikuyu. After another lull in fighting, there was renewed violence in March 1994. The Kalenjin again fought with the Kikuyu in the Rift Valley and Burnt Forest areas. This was followed by the forced eviction of Kikuyu by the Maasai in the Enoospukia region. In 1995, in the Mai Mahiu area of Naivasha, fighting broke out that left 300 000 people displaced. The violence that characterised the first elections was to be repeated on a greater scale in 1997, the year of the second multiparty elections.

Eyewitness accounts say that these were actually not gangs, but trained militia. Some of the gangs were calling themselves the Kaya Bombo after the forest where local people say they have witnessed groups of young men undergoing weapons training. Similar activities around the Similaini caves were also reported.

There were two major reasons why Moi had to drive away non Kalenjins from Rift Valley-one was to do away with Kibaki Democratic Party (DP) followers, majority of whom being Kikuyus-secondly it was to do with land dispute, where after non Kalenjins had been driven away it would remain for Kalenjins.

Luos, Luhyia and Kisii were to be driven away because they either supported Ford Kenya, DP or Ford People. That is why the Luhya, Kikuyu, and Kisii were greatly affected, their houses burnt, property looted, many displaced until today whereas some were killed. It explains why ethnic clashes raged in the Nzoia, Kericho and Kisumu Districts.

This was in March 1992 when the reports of ethnic violence become commonplace in the press. The Kalenjin Assistant Minister Kipkalia Kones had just declared Kericho District a KANU zone and stated that the Kalenjin youth in the area had declared war on the Luo community in retaliation for several Kalenjins killed in earlier violence. In the Chemichimi (the Bungoma District), the Kalenjin attacked the Luhya community.

Although the government accused the opposition parties of fueling the violence through Libyan-trained recruits, according to a parliamentary committee report of September 1992, senior government officials had been involved in training and arming Kalenjin warriors to attack villages and drive away non-Kalenjin ethnic groups from the Rift Valley, Western, and Nyanza Provinces.

The same year new clashes broke out between the Kisii and the Maasai while fighting continued to rage in the Bungoma District between the Kalenjin and the Luhya. In the Bungoma District alone, 2,000 people were displaced and 60 killed. Victims in the Molo Division report seeing 4 government helicopters bringing arrows to Kalenjin attackers and that out of uniform soldiers are fighting along side the Kalenjin.

The Kanu Secretary-General Joseph Kamotho publicly admitted in April 1993 that the Maasai were part of a 3,000 strong youth squad recruited by the Kanu to repress opposition supporters. Kamotho later recanted and denied the reports when Moi challenged him.

But as Moi denied any any trained worriors, in August 1993 it was reported that about 300 Kalenjin warriors attacked the Molo area of the Nakuru District, displacing hundred of Kikuyus. The Kalenjin burnt more than 200 houses belong to Kikuyus, but the local police took no action because they were instructed to do so.

This was about the same time fighting also occurred between the Kalenjin and the Kikuyu in the Burnt Forest area near Eldoret and Uasin Gishu Districts. 15,000 Kikuyus and Luhya fled the area as hundreds of Kalenjin warriors killed, looted and burnt their homes.

Two months later it was reported that an estimated 500 Maasai warriors attacked an area, Enosupukia (Narok District), south of the security operation zones, burning houses of Kikuyu farmers and uprooting 30,000 Kikuyus.

On April 9, 1996 Kanu parliamentarian Kipruto arap Kirwa, had disappeared after he launched a verbal attack against President Moi for fuelingand sponsoring the ethnic violence in Rift Valley. Those days when you opposed Moi either you were detained, tortured or assassinated.

Other things Kirwa accused Moi of was stifling alternative views in Kanu and of being undemocratic. The following month-May 3, 1996 Kenya’s Daily Nation reported that Moi asked the Kalenjin community to remain united as their solidarity in Kenya’s ruling party will be the basis of their future political survival. This was meant to silence the Kalenjins who were opposed to him.

Given that for the ethnic Kalenjins of Kenya’s Rift Valley, the red, iron-rich soil is something worth fighting for, and many still resent the ‘invasion’ of other ethnic groups who bought coffee and tea plantations left after British colonial rule, reconciliation and healing in Kenya will remain one of the major challenges, unless this was resolved.

Just like 1990’s ethnic clashes were more on land and water, so did the 2007 presidential disputed election. The violence is yet to continue because many Kalenjins believe that Kikuyu whom they refer to as “foreigners” were given unfair advantage to buy tracts of land by the ethnic Kikuyu under Kenya’s first black president.

Mr. William Ruto, who is plagued by a corruption scandal and by investigations into his role in the orchestrated violence that killed 1,200 people and displaced 300,000 after the disputed Dec. 27, 2007, elections, is now at the center of an investigation by the Internationa Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague.

During the attack, perpetrators forced Kibaki’s PNU supporters inside the Kiambaa Church. The perpetrators poured fuel on the Church and mattresses, which were used to block the doors. They then set the Church on fire, killing between 17 and 35 men, women, children, elderly, and the disabled trapped inside or attempting to flee. As those inside the church attempted to flee, attackers chased them, hacking to death those that they could catch.

According to ICC Proscutor Mr Moreno-Ocampo Mr Ruto and Mr Kosgey led the network in preparing meetings, raising money to buy weapons (guns, grenades and ammunition), paying the perpetrators and rewarding them for every single PNU supporter killed. It is part of the evidence that Mr Moreno-Ocampo on Monday handed over to the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber to support his accusation against the three over the violence that followed the disputed December 2007 presidential election results.

The ICC prosecutor argues that Mr Ruto headed the political and military sections, while Mr Kosgey deputised and acted as the boss in his absence. “The network had a military component consisting of former members of the Kenyan military and police. In 2007, the Military Component advised Ruto on logistics, obtained weapons, identified financial resources, and mobilised direct perpetrators”, Ocampo charged.

“In 2006 and 2007, the Network also had a Military Structure that included three “Commanders” or “Generals” (Commanders), all of whom reported to Ruto or Kosgey,” he says in the report. He says that under Mr Ruto were three commanders in Nandi Hills, Central Rift and South Rift. “Ruto was the head of the Military Component.

The attackers targeted Turbo Town, which they said was inhabited mostly by Kikuyus and the greater Eldoret area (Kiambaa, Yamumbi, Huruma, Kimumu and Langas), Kapsabet Town, and Nandi Hills Town.

“The organisational policy of the network was to punish and expel from the Rift Valley those perceived to support PNU, namely, Kikuyu, Kamba and Kisii civilians; and to gain power and create a uniform ODM voting block,” the prosecutor says.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo also describes how the attackers planned and executed the attack on the Kenya Assemblies of God church in Kiambaa in which more than 30 people, including children, were killed according to media report.

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel 254-20-4441372
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

KENYA: THE BIG DEBATE ON AL-SHABAAB AND MUSLIM FANDERMENTALISM IN KENYA

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From: People For Peace

Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 2011

Although Tourism Minister, Mr Najib Balala has denied any link with Al-Shabbab, the fact that Muslim Youth Centre (MYC), commonly known as Pumwani Muslim Youth he financed is known for aiding Al-Shabaab militia in Somalia by extensively funding, recruiting and providing training networks for its recruits in Kenya is the reason why he is being accused by UN Monitoring Unit.

Riyadha Mosque in Majengo, Nairobi under construction which a recent UN Monitoring unit linked it to supporting the Al-shabaab adherents in Somalia- Photo/Standard

Al-Shabaab, literally meaning “the youth,” is an offshoot of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which splintered into several smaller groups in 2006 and began operating as an independent entity in early 2007. Since then it has been waging an insurgency against the UN-backed government in Somalia.

According to UN report, Nairobi’s Eastleigh is hub for Al-Shabaab militants. Kenya has a large Somali diaspora living in the Eastleigh suburb of the capital Nairobi, along with nearly 400,000 Somalis living in the world’s biggest refugee camp in Dadaab in the north of the country.

A general view of Eastleigh shopping centre in Nairobi-There is booming retail and wholesale businesses in the area. A United Nation’s report identifies Eastleigh as the hub for Somali-based Al-Shabaab militants/ Photo-Nation

Refugees have taken the advantage among other things to buying and selling passports and illegal procurement of visas, Kenyan identification cards and to some extent drugs. The report further says Busia border point along the Kenya/Uganda road is the most porous of all the entry and exit points in the country.

Undercover NTV video footage taken by the crew June this year showed the activities of a network of terror recruiters luring youths to go and fight in Somalia. One of the key recruiters captured on tape is a serving member of the Kenyan military and a Muslim, Corporal Hussein Abdullahi Athan who has been in the Kenyan military for 10 years.

The organisation maintains its grip on power by using violence and intimidation, while also having the necessary funds, weapons, technical expertise, and human resources needed to conduct operations. It raises money by taxing international aid organisations, collecting funds from citizens, receiving remittances from abroad, and receiving financial support from Eritrea and now Kenya.

The fact that Hussein is also a trained engineer – a skill set, in the army it means that, among other things, he is a specialist in laying land mines and booby traps as well as in bridge-building. His base is 10 Engineers in Nanyuki, but he is currently attached to the school of combat engineering in Isiolo as a trainer. He was meeting the NTV crews as a soldier loyal to al Shabaab.

Mind you, the Kenya Defence Forces Minister also happened to be a Muslim, Mohamed Yusuf Haji, so you can see the connection. Mind you again, that the current Kenyan National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) head is also a military, Maj-Gen Michael Gichangi.

Although it could politically be argued that President Mwai Kibaki re appointed Maj-Gen Michael Gichangi as NSIS boss to enable him foresee dubious plans pertaining to the threats of the security in his government, the Minister for Defence still has the power.

This is because the core function of the Ministry of State for Defence as spelt out in the Armed Forces Act, chapter 199 is to defend the Republic of Kenya against armed external aggression. The secondary mission is to provide support to civil authorities in maintenance of order. In this regard, the Ministry contributes to the maintence of national security by guaranteeing and preserving the territorial integrity of our country.

It would also mean that even though Gen Julius Waweru Karangi who was appointed the new Chief of the Defence Forces on July 13, 2011 to take over from Gen Jeremiah Mutinda Kianga, he cannot do much to foresee the security threats as the minister.

Corporal Hussein Abdullahi Athan is the best trainer for the Al-Shabaab given that the tactics employed include guerrilla techniques characteristic of terror groups when targeting its enemies, including suicide bombings, (remote-controlled) roadside bombs, grenade attacks, assassinations, and small-arms attacks.

It explains why Al Shabab is one of Africa’s most fearsome militant Islamist groups. The Shabab claimed responsibility for coordinated bomb attacks that tore through crowds watching the 2010 World Cup final in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, killing at least 70 people, including an American aid worker.

Although Mr Balala denied any link with the A-Shabaab, saying he only attended a fundraiser in support of Riyadha mosque in Nairobi’s Pumwani area in September 2009 and donated Sh200,000 which was wired to an account operated by the Islamist movement that controls much of southern Somalia, the fact that this money was deposited in a Habib Bank account, operated by al Shabaab’s point man in Nairobi Ahmad Imam and other Muslim youth centre members puts him at fixed.

This is not the first time the Muslims linked with terrorism in Kenya have been supported financially. In November 2001, Kenyan authorities arrested some 50 Muslims suspected of having business links with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network. Most of the suspects, who were later released, had reportedly been receiving money from relatives and friends working in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The arrests mainly centered on the heavily Muslim populated coastal city of Mombasa.

Since then tensions have been high between the Muslim community and the Kenyan government. Muslims on the coast, the northeast and in Nairobi complain that they have been persecuted on the flimsy excuse of being terrorist suspects. In Mombasa, roughly 60 percent of the population is Muslim.

It is claimed that Muslim charity organizations founded to help the poor in northern Kenya and Somalia have been used to fund al-Qaeda. Working with sympathizers inside the charities, al-Qaeda is said to have used humanitarian funds for terrorist attacks in Kenya, Tanzania and Indonesia.

In one case, donations to the al-Haramain Foundation to support Islamic preachers ended up in the pockets of a suspect in the November 2002 bombing of the Israeli hotel in Mombasa according to Associated Press, June 6, 2004. Quoting U.S. officials, the report said that a fish business financed with charity funds also steered profits to the al-Qaeda cell behind the August 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in East Africa.

A Kenyan Muslim preacher on Al-Haramain’s payroll until February told AP he knows at least two Islamic preachers who are still being paid by the charity. The preacher, who was paid 8,000 Kenyan shillings, or just over $100, a month, asked not to be identified for fear of retribution.

Kenya is susceptible to terrorism, especially due to the government’s close relationship with the United States and other Western democracies. The influx of Somali refugees crossing into the country from war-torn Somalia is another reason why the international community should worry about the country’s internal wrangles.

It is reported that over 25,000 new refugees from Somalia have entered Kenya as a result of the Islamic courts taking power. There are genuine concerns that Islamic radicals may be using this refugee flow to smuggle weapons and people into Kenya to engage in terrorist attacks against Western interests.

Al Qaeda operations in Kenya have been closely linked to Somalia, which, since the 1991 fall of military ruler Siad Barre, has been a haven to Al Qaeda operatives and saw the emergence of the armed fundamentalist militia, AI AI. It worked closely with Al Qaeda to undermine the US-led United Nations Intervention in Somalia in the mid-1990s and acted as an agent of the then radical Islamic regime in Sudan to destabilize neighboring Ethiopia.

Al Qaeda used Kenya as a gateway to support its activities in Somalia, through financial transactions, the hosting of meetings in Nairobi, the shipment of arms, facilitation of travel by its operatives and through other forms of support.

From Somalia, Al Qaeda came to nest itself in Kenya’s Coastal Muslim community, using coastal shipping routes out of Somalia, recruited Kenyans to participate in its activities plotted to bomb.

The Al Qaeda-linked organization, AI AI, has sought to gain a foothold within Kenya’s Somali community in North Eastern Province, especially among the refugees who had fled from neighboring Somalia after the collapse of the Somali state in 1991. In recent years, North Eastern Province has witnessed the growth of Islamic fundamentalism supported in part by Saudi-financed charities and also attributable in the Somali refugee camps to AI AI activists.

Kenya’s Muslim population is concentrated in the Coast, Eastern and North Eastern Provinces. Kenya’s Muslims largely follow a Sunni tradition of Islam that goes back many centuries and is heavily influenced by the tolerant teachings of the Sufi brotherhoods. The small community of Kenyan Shiite Muslims is largely composed of descendants of immigrants from India and Pakistan.

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya

Tel 254-20-4441372
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

KENYA: WORKSHOP ON LAND AND WATER SECURITY

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Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
WUNDANYI-TAITA TAVETA
FRIDAY, JULY 29, 2011
TAKE-3

Workshop on land and water security entered its third day yesterday here at Taita Taveta County in Mombasa Catholic Archdiocese with challenges on the implementations of the new constitution with some participants wondering why Kenyans voted for it overwhelmingly despite the fact that some church leaders told their flocks to vote against it.

Some participants were even concerned why the very church leaders who rejected the constitution and called the meeting to condemn one single man for wearing stud on his ear cannot do the same for over 10 million Kenyans who die of hunger.

Church leaders fear they would be blamed if they don’t condemn things that touch on morality that is why they were afraid if they did not reject the constitution because of abortion or condemn Dr Willy Mutinga for wearing the studs, which to them meant that he was either homosexual or advocating for it they would be blamed.

Those who die of hunger or still live in IDPs camps is not of a great concern to church leaders because they don’t touch on morality and therefore don’t see any need to call for meeting to push on the government to ensure that no body is dying because of hunger when they are able to feed them.

Kenyans overwhelmingly and peacefully voted “YES” for a new constitution as opposed to some Church leaders who commanded their flocks to vote “NO”. ‘YES’ got 5,954,767- representing 67.25 percent of the total votes while “NO” got 2,687,193- representing 30.25 percent.

Kenyans and for that matter, the vast majority of Christians went against their church leaders’ command and voted “YES” because they generally agreed that the proposed constitution, while not perfect, is a huge improvement over the old constitution, a colonial-era document that gives almost total power to the President and leaves out any mention that the government serves at the behest of Kenya’s citizens.

They voted “YES” because Kenya’s new constitution is not only designed to re-distribute political power away from the capital, Nairobi, to 47 newly created counties (the devolution of powers), but also the land issue. It explains why numerous groups played a pivotal role in delivering this historically critical outcome, including established groups such as the Kenya Land Alliance.

Other groups included the Center for Land Economy, Women’s Right Movements, the Green Belt Movement, and newer groups such as the young women’s advocacy group Warembo ni Yes (an outgrowth of Bunge la Mwananchi—Women’s Social Movement).

Warembo ni Yes used new technologies such as mobile phones, Facebook, Twitters and the Internet, and more traditional methods such as community forums to amplify the voices of their constituency. In the process, innovative female leaders emerged to advance women’s rights.

Women were to vote overwhelmingly for the new constitution because it guarantees that they will fill at least one-third of elected and appointed government posts, land and property inheritance. Under Kenya’s previous law, inheritance was governed by customary law, often preventing women from inheriting property from their parents or laying claim to joint assets when their husbands’ died.

A new Bill of Rights also provides that all marriages shall be registered under an Act of Parliament. This means that even customary law marriages will be certified, protecting women’s interests in disputes between a widow and her in-laws over property. Currently, in the case of customary marriage it is the in-laws who attest to the existence of the union since they are the ones who oversee the traditional wedding.

In the new dispensation, all marriages will be officially registered. Women will also be protected from claims by other women who turn up following a man’s death, claiming to have been married to the same man under customary law and demanding a share of his estate – a common occurrence.

Historically land has been the centre for controversy in Kenya especially the issue of women being denied the right to own or inherit land. There are numerous cases where women are disinherited of land and new law seeks to change this as stated in the following articles Article 60:

(1) Land in Kenya shall be held, used and managed in a manner that is equitable, efficient, productive and sustainable, and in accordance with the following principles-

(f) Elimination of gender discrimination in law, customs and practices related to land and property in land: Article 68 Enact legislation (vi) To protect the dependants of deceased persons holding interests in any land; and water.

The new law defines community land as ancestral land and lands traditionally occupied by hunter –gatherer communities or lawfully held as trust land by the county governments. The new law entrenches provisions that protect culture and traditional lifestyles of indigenous people.

“The constitution shall protect indigenous communities that have retained and maintained a traditional lifestyle and livelihoods based on hunter- gatherer economy or pastoral persons and communities, whether they’re nomadic or settled community because of its relative geographical isolation who have experienced only marginal participation in social and economic life of Kenya as a whole.

That is why a day after Kenyans voted to accept a new constitution women across the country spoke about their hopes and expectations. Formerly women have been robbed of their financial contributions to matrimonial assets.

Men for example could just wake up one morning and sale the house they had bought together with his wife without her consent. This cannot happen now because the new constitution provides for the elimination of gender discrimination in law, customs and practices related to land and property.

This is indeed a very historic moment for the women of this country who have for years battled with their in-laws in succession cases. Formerly in the case of customary marriage it is the in-laws who attest to the existence of the union since they are the ones who oversee the traditional wedding.

The new constitution also grants health budgets for counties, making health care services more available in rural areas. It will ensure that there will be better deployment of health workers in all parts of the country, better nutrition and provision of health services. This will enable more women to deliver in hospitals and a sharp improvement of family planning services.

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel 254-20-4441372
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

KENYA: LAND AND WATER SECURITY IN MOMBASA ARCHDIOCESE

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from ouko joachim omolo

Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

BY DAVID KOBIA SIMON
WUNDANYI-TAITATA TAVETA
WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2011
TAKE-2

Coast province is rated as one of the very sensitive regions in Kenya as far as the issue of land is concerned. According to government sources, Coast Province – in which the Catholic Archdiocese of Mombasa is located, has the highest number of landless people in the country.

Coastal land was previously owned by the Persians Arab Sultans and British. It was only much later handed over to the Government of Kenya. The squatter problem escalated due to rising populations, increased demand for land, and the non restriction of land ownership in the country. A presidential directive to regularize Coastal squatters on Government land was first issued in 1978. Since then, there have been concerted efforts to establish regional settlement schemes.

From the period of colonialism, Kenya has been grappling with the land question which subsequent government regimes have been unable to or unwilling to resolve. The land question has manifested itself in many ways including fragmentation, breakdown in land administration, disparities in land ownership and poverty.

This has resulted in environmental, social, economic and political problems including deterioration in land quality, squatting and landlessness, disinheritance of some groups and individuals, urban squalor, underutilization and abandonment of agricultural land, tenure insecurity and conflict.

In its pastoral and development mission, the Catholic Archdiocese of Mombasa virtually covers 9 administrative districts of the province and makes day to day interactions with huge populations seriously affected by land problems in the region. Many people in this region remain landless (and squatters) yet it is a critical asset to the economic, social and cultural development.

In Taveta deanery for instance, it was estimated that close to 40 percent of the population in Taveta district comprises of squatters found in clusters of close to 100 households in different parts of the large-scale farms some of which have been in dispute for a long period of time.

This has significantly contributed to increased levels of poverty and its subsequent effects in many sections of the community. The nature of colonial and neo colonial experience in coast can only be understood through the contradictory and multiple functions and conflicts that land generates.

The prevailing situation in the 10 mile Coastal strip is that land occupied by the indigenous Kenyans are still held under communal customary tenure as most of the land have not been adjudicated to determine the individual land rights. Areas which have been adjudicated under the Land Titles Act, have legal individual tenure except that most of the Landlords are absentee landlords.

It is estimated that absentee landlords at the coast own over 77, 753. 02 hectares of land in the deaneries covered by the Catholic Archdiocese of Mombasa, it is estimated that absentee landlords own a total of 77, 519 hectares. Squatters who believe they have the right of ownership as they have lived in these localities from time immemorial occupy these parcels.

Even though the Government has recently acquired a few of the farms and converted them to settlement schemes, such as Mtondia Roka and Shimba Hills, land tenure issues at the coast still remains one of the most sensitive issues as locals feel they were cheated at the time of adjudication in 1908. The land occupied by the indigenous Kenyans were not adjudicated as private property, but were alienated as crown land.

Although agriculture is the highest income in Kenya, many people in coast province are virtually denied the chance to practice it because they literally have no piece of land that they can legally claim as theirs. In extreme cases, it has even led to lose of lives.

The most urbanised part of Coast Province is the Mombasa metropolitan area. For example the overall growth of population in the Nyali-Bamburi-Shanzu area has resulted in rapid urbanisation. Large numbers of people seeking employment opportunities are moving into the area between the main road and the beach, as well as the surrounding areas.

Roads and other infrastructure development are not keeping pace with increasing development in the north coast, causing severe shortages of potable water and power. Moreover, hotels continue to develop in plots landward of the original beach hotels and are beginning to encroach on existing residential areas.

This situation is complicated by an unpredictable influx and temporary settlement of refugees, creating huge demands on the meagre public facilities and degradation of the local environment. Although there is a land use plan for the area, administered by the Municipal Council of Mombasa, development has not adhered to the plan.

Increasing commercial and residential development, urbanisation pressures and uncontrolled land use changes have placed a significant strain on existing services and infrastructure in the area. Trends suggest increasing growth of many sectors within the area, all of which will exacerbate the public service and infrastructure problems already being experienced.

The Kenya coast however, has played an important role for over 2,000 years in East Africa when merchants sailed from Arabia in search of gold, spices, ivory and other goods. Dating back to the seventh century, Arabs settled on the coast, and built trading centres and settlements along it.

The Portuguese had established trading posts along the coast since 1498 but were driven out in 1790 by the Arabs. Although many settlements have retained prominent facets of Arab culture, the coastal area has progressively integrated the distinct races of African, Asian, European and Arab people.

Because of its long history of human activity, Kenya’s coast has an estimated 70 significant historical sites and monuments. Out of these, 58 have been designated as National Monuments and Reserves.

These historical sites and monuments include isolated ruins of houses, mosques, tombs, townships – example, Gede Ruins – and fortified areas such as Fort Jesus. They also include monuments like the Vasco da Gama pillar at Malindi, and urban areas of historical and architectural importance, such as Mombasa Old Town.

Kenya’s coastline has about 53,000 hectares of mangroves in nine species, occuring mostly in creeks, bays and estuaries. Some villages still exploit mangroves for their wood both for commercial sale and subsistence use.

Depending on the size class, mangroves are harvested for their wood both for commercial sale and subsistence use. Mangrove wood can be used for building purposes, firewood or making charcoal.

A significant proportion of coast province land is contained in national parks, especially at Malindi, Watamu, Mpunguti and Kisite. Tsavo is the oldest, best known and largest. The 13,686 km2 of Tsavo in the province takes up a large chunk (about 66 percent) of Taita District and a small portion of Tana River District. This has resulted in acute land shortage in Taita, with a high population concentration in the Voi-Wundanyi corridor and another one in Taveta.

The coastal areas contain important coastal lowland forests which support a high diversity of flora and fauna. These resources are important parts of the coastal ecosystem and also provide additional tourist destinations. The Kaya Forests of the Kenya coast are relic patches of the once very extensive lowland forest of East Africa.

Today these forests are protected as sacred places and are still historically used by Mijikenda elders for prayer purposes and other ceremonies. These forests are being protected by the National Museums of Kenya as Forest Reserves, especially in the Kwale and Kilifi districts. However, many of these Kayas have been thinned out and are in danger of being lost completely.

The Miji Kenda, the dominant African tribe of the coast apart from the Taita, initially settled by the seashore. They were gradually pushed further inland to pave the way for Arab settlements. The term Miji Kenda describes the settlement pattern, which was based on the nine sub tribes of the people. They settled in nine fortress villages, one for each of their tribes. Inside the fortress villages, which were located in forests with only one exit, crop farming thrived.

The Kenya Coast was recently engulfed in violence emanating from Likoni (Mombasa District) and spreading to Kwale District. This violence lasted about two months, claiming the lives of many and shattering an important sector of Kenya’s economy.

The attackers raided the predominantly Luo slum of Maweni in Kongowea, Mombasa. Ujamaa and Shika Adabu villages were also invaded. This called for the scouring of the Simuani caves, Kaya Waa and Kaya Bombo forests where 10 members of the gang were arrested by Administration police and General Service Unit personnel.

Over the next few days, as the violence moved on north to Mtwapa, and the death toll increased, people continued taking refuge at the Likoni Catholic Church where the Kenya Red Cross Society extended aid. Some of the 69 suspects already arrested started appearing in court.

A Mombasa politician Emmanuel Karisa Maitha was in 1997 arrested in connection with the violence as bloodshed spilled over to Kwale in the South and Kilifi District in the North. By this time, the pressure exerted on the government by opposition leaders, lobby groups and religious leaders was so great that a high level security meeting was held to draw up new strategies to counter the violence.

The violence continued as is depicted by a stampede at the church when unknown people lobbed stones into the area. By then, the death toll had risen to 36 and destruction of property continued as 400 waterfront kiosks were brought down to ashes in Malindi. By 20/8/97, the number of suspects in police custody stood at 309 including Mr. Omar Masumbuko (East African Standard August 21st 1997).

David is a Catholic Archdiocese of Mombasa coordinator

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya

Tel 254-20-4441372
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

BISHOP GASSIS ORDERS MISSIONARIES TO EVACUATE NUBA

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From: People For Peace

Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
THURSDAY, JULY 14, 2011

“It is almost mid-night but I cannot sleep given the present situation”, this was the expression made by El Obeid Catholic Bishop Macram Max Gassis in his letter yesterday ordering missionaries in his diocese to evacuate Nuba Mountains for safety of their lives.

Bishop Gassi/ File photo

In solidarity with Doctor Tom, Sister Angelina, Sister Rosio, Father Ceaser, Father Francis, Father Samuel in Kauda, Brother Isaac, Father Gerald Apostles if Jesus, Bishop Gassis who is still in Europe since the bombardments began in Nuba Mountains in the letter forwarded to People for Peace in Africa Regional News, says he continues to suffer with the people of Nuba Mountains.

“I travelled extensively to bring the plight of our brothers and sisters to the international communities. The evil spirit is let loose to kill, burn, and torture innocent people. The Nuba people continue to suffer innocently”, the bishops emotionally expressed.

The bishop says he has conveyed the fathers and sisters’ dangerous life and the agony of their brothers and sisters in USA, Germany, Spain, France, Slovakia, and Australia, assuring them that he will continue, despite the fact that his heart aches to be the voice of the suffering innocent Nuba.

With a heavy heart the bishop has asked the missionaries in Nuba to evacuate the area soonest possible. The bishop says he has taken this decision because he does not want the missionaries face dangers.

He says he is not asking them to betray their Nuba brothers and sisters but he needs their safe and sound in order to serve them once this devil is cast out. The bishop has sent the missionaries 60 tons of cargo, but may not be able to send more because security of the air company. The bishop wants the missionaries to take his plea very seriously.

Repeating the words of Jesus: “This devil is cast out only by prayers and fasting”, the bishop concludes his letter with inspirational devotion that on the cross with Christ with confidence that there is also resurrection.

Since Bishop Macram Max Gassis was appointed to head the Diocese of El Obeid, Sudan, in 1980s, he has never seen peace. He found a people devastated by a grinding civil war and brutal oppression. Bishop Gassis’s flock had a difficult time getting things like education and clean water.

Yesterday the United Nations said aid workers reported heavy bombing and gunfire in several parts of South Kordofan, including around the state capital Kadugli as recently as Monday.

South Kordofan lies on the border with the newly independent country of South Sudan and has been the site of clashes between government troops from the north and southern-aligned forces.

The Nuba were among the non-Arab northern communities who joined with the southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army, and its political wing, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, during the war.

Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity for the atrocities perpetrated in Darfur, is purportedly furious that the people of South Kordafan refuse to acknowledge the recent election of Ahmed Haroun as governor.

Since then a heavy aerial bombardment by government Antonovs, MiG jets and helicopter gunships rocked rebel military strongholds and civilian villages. Photographs collected by Nuba and distributed to reporters recently in Nairobi during the press brief by Nuba communities showed graphic scenes of how bombardments are targeting innocent Nuba people, with some lying in pools of blood.

In a well-publicised recent speech, President Bashir warned once South Sudan secedes, there would be no place for ethnic or cultural diversity in the north, and Islam would be the sole source of law. It means war will continue.

The northerners, who inhabit the country roughly north of 12°N lat. and mainly near the Nile, consist of Arab and Nubian groups; they are Muslim (mostly of the Sunni branch), speak Arabic (the country’s official language), and follow Arab cultural patterns (although only relatively few are descended from the Arabs who emigrated into the region during the 13th-19th cent.).

The southerners, consisting of Nilotic and Sudanic peoples, largely follow traditional religious beliefs, although some are Christian; they practice shifting cultivation or are pastoralists, and most speak Nilotic languages. The leading ethnic groups in the south are the Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk, Bari, and the non-Nilotic Azande.

The Nuba people reside in one of the most remote and inaccessible places in all of Sudan–the foothills of the Nuba Mountains in central Sudan. At one time the area was considered a place of refuge, bringing together people of many different tongues and backgrounds who were fleeing oppressive governments and slave traders.

As a result, over 100 hundred languages are spoken in the area and are considered Nuba languages, although many of the Nuba also speak Sudanese Arabic, the official language of Sudan. The Nuba Mountains mark the southern border of the sands of the desert and the northern limit of good soils washed down by the Nile River.

The term Nuba is often used to refer to the inhabitants of the Nuba Mountains. The Nuba number 1.5 million. The various Nuba people make up some 90 percent of the population of the area, while the rest are Baggara (cattle herders), mainly Hawazma and Misiriya Arabs. The Baggara moved into the mountains from the west and north around 1800. There is also a smaller minority of Arab traders, the so-called Jellaba.

In the earliest days and for thousands of subsequent years the ancestors of the Nuba probably held the greater part of this country (i.e. what is now known as Kordofan), except the northern most deserts. Beaten back by other races that ruled the Nile banks in successive generations, by tribes from the interior, and finally by the nomad Arabs, the Nuba have now retired to the mountains of southern Kordofan.

The more recent history of the Nuba goes back to the early 16th century at the point when large groups of Juhaina pastoral tribes began to move south-westwards into the plains of northern Kordofan, ultimately confining the Nuba to the region now known as the Nuba Mountains. This great movement coincided with the establishment of the Kingdom of Sennar by Umara Dungas around 1504 AD.

The Nuba peoples seem to have lived traditionally in separate communities, with the exception of the Kingdom of Tegali, which was a relatively powerful settlement; at its peak (during the 18th century) it laid many smaller communities under its tribute. The Tegali Kingdom was founded in the Tegali hills in the extreme north-east, the area nearest to the riverain centres of Islam.

The independence of the Sudan in 1956 accelerated the opening up of the mountains to all winds of change, and catalysed the mobility of the Nuba people towards the urban centres of the Sudan and further to foreign countries. This opening up has also meant that the Nuba Mountains were henceforth open to economic and social intrusion by national and international agents of trade and politics, and to cultural exchange.

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel 254-20-4441372
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

THE BIG DEBATE ON THE CHURCH INSPIRATION

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From: People For Peace

Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NIROBI-KENYA

WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 2011

In a scathing open letter to Pope Benedict XVI and Australian bishops sent to parishes across the country by the Catholics for Renewal that the church is no longer adequately inspires people is quite challenging. They railed at bishops to be more accountable, reject discrimination and do more listening to their flock.

The letter is coming at the time Pope Benedict has accepted the resignation of the cardinal heading the Vatican’s financial policy department, a move being seen as a further attempt by the Holy See to comply with international rules on money laundering according to Catholic News Agency.

Cardinal Attilio Nicora asked to be relieved of his administration job to focus exclusively on the financial authority. The report adds that there had been questions about possible conflicts of interests when Cardinal Nicora was named president of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority earlier this year, given his dual roles.

It is also at the time the family in Bungoma- Kenya, of Sophie Naliaka Kibanani, a 25-year old former university student whose whereabouts is now unknown to her family have sued the Opus Dei of confining her illegally so as to indoctrinate her when she was a student at Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya.

It is also to be noted that of recent days some Catholic faithful in China did not receive very well the move by the Holy See for excommunicating Father Paul Lei Shiyin of Leshan who was ordained a bishop without papal mandate. This comes at the time rumours are already circulating about another illicit ordination in Shantou diocese, southern Guangdong province, on July 14.

After thorough investigation and a clear warning to Father Lei, as well as informing the Chinese government, the Holy See has determined that Father Lei has violated canon law deliberately.

Father Lei, a leading figure in the Sichuan “open” Church community for many years, helped the local Church to restore its properties and expand its social influence, the observer said; thus, some priests and parishioners tend to think they need such capable leaders for the good of the Church from a secular perspective.

According to Archbishop Charles Chaput, Archbishop of Denver and well known in Australia, “the Pope is not CEO and bishops are not his employees…Instead, the Church is closer to a confederation of families than to a modern corporation”.

CathBlog – The Church is a family, not a corporation

To him there is a secular perception that the Church is acting like a transnational, global Corporation. This he insists has become so obvious that robust defences are being mounted. The Denver prelate made his remarks in a First Things article on Wednesday.

He began by addressing some of the common misconceptions about Church authority, relating how some Catholics who live in other dioceses have assumed that he has the authority solve a problem in their area. Those parishioners, he said, have even gotten “annoyed” with him for not becoming involved with issues outside his jurisdiction.

Two months ago Pope Benedict XVI had to fire Bishop William Morris of the Toowoomba diocese, west of Brisbane after suggesting the church consider ordaining women and married men.

Morris said he was removed because of a letter he wrote to his parish in 2006 in which he suggested that the church could help solve the problem of priest shortages by considering ordaining women and married men.

According to Morris however, he did not mean to advocate the idea that women and married men should be priests, but simply wanted the church to keep an open mind on the matter. In an open letter to his parish, Morris said a handful of people unhappy with his leadership used his 2006 comments as a basis for complaint to the Vatican, which then launched an investigation.

One thing is very obvious, that there are many challenges facing the Catholic Church in Australia currently. The decline in religious vocations, falling mass attendance, married clergy, female ordination and the role of the laity are all issues contributing to the challenges of the Australian Catholic Church.

The decline in religious vocations is partly due to the fact that clergy are not allowed to marry. Australian priests are pursuing many avenues in an attempt to urge Rome to overturn its ban on married clergy to try and eliminate the shortage of ordained priests.

Not too long ago the National Council of Priests wrote to the Vatican Synod of Bishops arguing that marriage should be no bar to ordination. They also asked the Church to readmit priests who had left the clergy to marry. This would make a difference but is not the only answer.

For the church to be inspiring according to Evangelical Pastor Norman, there are at least three essentials before a person can truly make a church their home:

1. People need a sense of belonging. This is more than a handshake or a greeting. It’s the sense that they are a part of the fellowship; that their presence matters, that their voice is heard, that they have something valuable to offer. It’s a sense that there are people there that care about them; that if they didn’t show up, someone would notice.

2. People need to feel that they won’t be judged. This goes hand in hand with the first item, because if they feel like they’ve been judged, they certainly won’t feel they belong. This is a tough one because we need to be very careful not to accommodate sin, but at the same time we can certainly understand the struggles people have and empathize with them, unless of course, we’ve never sinned.

3. People need to be challenged with the truth. It might feel good to hear what you want to hear, but people look to the church to guide them in truths of God’s Word. At no point should the church try to be “relevant” by watering down the gospel.

As the BBC reported a couple of years ago, some churches have been accused for varieties of reasons, ranging from racism, and discriminations among others, especially in South Africa where most churches are still discriminative even after the end of apartheid.

The majority of South Africans find the message of some churches deeply offensive, especially in the harsh landscape of the Northern Cape where the bread and butter issues – jobs and health worry the black majority.

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel 254-20-4441372
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

sin of presumption.

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from collins odhiambo

A message for all of us. is it?

Be Blessed.

Akollo
– – – – – – – – – – –

1 Sin of Presumption

There is a legend of a woman who had a faithful dog.

This dog was so faithful that the woman could leave her baby with it and go out to attend other matters.

She always returned to find the child soundly asleep with

the dog faithfully watching over him..

2 Sin of Presumption

One day something tragic happened.

The woman as usual, left the baby in the “hands” of this faithful dog and went out shopping.

When she returned, she discovered rather a nasty scene.

There was a total mess.

The baby’s cot was dismantled and his nappies and clothes torn to shreds with bloodstains all over the bedroom where she had left the child and the dog.

3 Sin of Presumption

Shocked, the woman wailed as she began looking for the baby.

Presently, she saw the faithful dog emerging from the under the bed.

It was covered with blood and licking its mouth as it had just finished a delicious meal.

The woman went berserk and assumed that the dog had devoured her baby.

Without much thought she clubbed the dog to death.

4 Sin of Presumption

But as she continued searching for the “remains” of her child, she beheld another scene.

Close to the bed was the baby who, although lying on bare floor, was safe.

And under the bed the carcass of a jackal torn to pieces in what must have been a fierce battle between it and the dog which was now dead.

5 Sin of Presumption

Then the reality hit the woman who now began to understand what took place in her absence.

The dog fought to protect the baby from the ravenous jackal.

It was too late for her now to make amends because in her impatience and anger, she had killed the faithful dog.

A dog deserving praise and adoration that fought to save the life of her dear beloved child received death in return.

6 Sin of Presumption

How often have we misjudged people and torn them to shreds with harsh words and even with physical assault before we have had time to evaluate the situation?

It is called the SIN OF PRESUMPTION.

Presuming things are one way without taking the trouble to find out exactly what the situation really is.

A little patience can drastically reduce major lifelong errors.

7 Sin of Presumption

Do you think that this e-mail was accidentally sent to you?

NO!

I was thinking of you! !

Keep this going.

You have no idea which one of Your

e-mail buddies could use a little hope today.

8 Sin of Presumption

Have a fantastic day.

If God is for us;

Who can be against us.

Police

1 Reply

From: collins odhiambo

You cannot defeat a Policeman!!!!!!!!!!!

Upon being stopped by a traffic officer on a fictitious driving violation, a Pastor sensing trouble, even when he knew he had committed no offense, yelled back: “I am a pastor not a wrong doer”

The officer replied: “Please, leave that pastor thing. In any case, if you are indeed a pastor, then you must have a Bible in your car. Bring it.” The Pastor speedily brought out his Bible to prove his honesty.

“Please read Matthew 5:25-26 to me.”

Incredulously, Pastor opened to the recommended passage and read: “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to a judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you the truth; you will not get out until you have paid the last penny”

The perplexed man of God “QUIETLY” made an “offering” of some shillings to his newly found “preacher”.

The Officer collected his “kitu kidogo” and said to the pastor, “End of service go in peace and argue no more.”

Yes Afande!!

KENYA: CHALLENGE OF EVANGELIZATION WITHIN AFRICAN VALUES

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BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
LANGATA-KAREN
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29, 2011
TAKE-2

Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

The Apostolic Nuncio in Kenya, Archbishop Alain Paul Lebeaupin in his address during the AMECEA Assembly, Wednesday at Catholic University said there is a great need in Africa to give African values a priority in evangelization.

When we talk of African values we refer to African cultural values that include the sense of community life, sense of good human relations, sense of the sacredness of life, of hospitality, of the sacred and of religion, sense of respect for authority and the elders, sense of language and proverbs among others.

Proverbs serve as the best approach since the meaning of proverbs is easily understood because so much can be said with a minimum of words. For example, a Ghanaian proverb: “The ruin of a nation begins in the homes of its people” has proved to be an accurate assessment of life.

Another Ghanaian proverb shows the value of being an honest person at all times. “One falsehood spoils a thousand truths” is a saying designed to show how destructive one falsehood can be to the reputation of a person. This proverb helps to preserve our good name. This is because an African believes that “honesty is the best policy” to keep your reputation sound.

Although a well-known saying in African culture that “it takes a whole village to raise a child” can no longer work in our modern world today, this saying is very important because it reminds us that for any child to develop successfully, they should benefit from the input of the whole community.

In many days the training children was not left to parents alone but the entire community and neighbourhoods. Children were trained how to respect elders, to be honest, responsible, human among others.

This is also true in African philosophy: “I am what I am because of who we all are.” It speaks of the essence of being human, particularly about the fact that you can’t exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can’t be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality you are known for your generosity.

In an African context it suggests that the person who behaves with humanity will eventually be an ancestor worthy of respect or veneration. The philosophy behind the African communalism, therefore guaranteed individual responsibility within the communal ownership and relationship.

Some of these proverbs and languages enabled Africans to dislike violence per se. This is because shedding of blood is abhorred. People who were killed were those whose continued existence was a threat to the life of others and to the peace of the community.

In such cases, the principle that it is better for one man to die than for all the community to perish, applied. War was only taken to as a last resort- that is when all formal and normal courses of action to search for peace had failed.

Suicide was never permitted in most African communities because punishment for it was such that the person was not buried since his corpse was also believed to be abominable to mother earth.

Although the African sense of hospitality is one of the African values that is still quite alive today, because of mistrust this is also diminishing slowly. In early days the Africans easily incorporate strangers and give them lands to settle hoping that they would go one day, and the land would revert to the owner.

Known as ITEBEA in 1960 then, although AMECEA was the brainchild of the Catholic Bishops of Tanganyika (today’s Tanzania) there was a need to corporate it with other countries under the then Apostolic Delegation (today’s Nunciature) in Nairobi, that was, Kenya, Nyasaland (today’s Malawi), Uganda, Sudan, Tanganyika and Northern Rhodesia (today’s Zambia).

When these other Bishops’ Conferences agreed to the necessity of working together, the then Apostolic Delegate (today’s Nuncio) Monsignor Guido Del Mestri consulted Rome. Rome gave its approval.

This was the time when many AMECEA countries were heading for independence-Tanganyika (1961), Uganda (1962), Kenya (1963), Nyasaland (1964) and Northern Rhodesia (1964) under charismatic leaders such as Hastings Kamuzu Banda (Nyasaland), Kenneth Kaunda (Northern Rhodesia), Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Julius Kambarage Nyerere (Tanganyika) and Milton Obote (Uganda).

These periods the society needed value-led leaders. Leaders who were highly qualified and creative, but at the same time who were people of moral integrity guided by Christian and gospel values, of which some of the mentioned leaders were not qualified because the white missionaries working in these regions viewed them as communists.

Historically the first plenary meeting took place in Dar-es-Salaam from 17th – 26th July 1961 under a very significant theme: “The Future of the Church in Africa”. Interestingly the agenda items for this first Plenary included: The Church and Media: Regional TV, Radio Station and Printing Press.

Spiritual Formation for the Diocesan Priests, a need for a centre for pastoral renewal and on – going Formation, a possibility of a regional university or at least a University College, a comprehensive Self – reliance Programme, the future of Catholic Schools and Catholic Education (need for a Christian Religious Education Syllabus).

Other areas included Justice and Peace issues in the region. Present during that historic meeting were Bishops from Kenya, Nyasaland, Tanganyika, Uganda and Northern Rhodesia. These were the founding members of the regional body. The Sudan and Eritrea/Ethiopia joined later though the former were observers from the beginning.

The Bishops decided to form a board consisting of Bishop Representatives from the five founding conferences. This was known as the Inter-Regional Episcopal Board in Eastern Africa (ITEBEA). Initially of course , ITEBEA was not to be a permanent structure, but rather a study forum where Bishops could meet time and again and together reflect on pastoral issues of common interest within the region. This was why they elected a part-time Secretary, Father Killian Flynn, who till 1964 was also full-time Secretary General for the Bishops’ Conference of Northern Rhodesia.

The meeting elected as ITEBEA’s first Chairman the Most Reverend Adam Kozlowiecki, the former Archbishop of Lusaka till 1969 and now a Cardinal and Archbishop Emeritus. The Late Cardinal Laurean Rugambwa was the President of ITEBEA.

Today Cardinals are called Patrons of AMECEA. In a nutshell the beginnings of ITEBEA were characterized by the presence of prophetic and foresighted church leaders. The original intention of ITEBEA was to be a regional forum for collaborative study of and reflection on pastoral issues of common regional interest.

The following was how the plenary themes were designed: 1961: The Future of the Church in Africa- 17th – 26th July 1961, Msimbazi Centre Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 1964:Review of Draft Constitution of AMECEA- 4th November 1964, Rome, Italy.

1967: Pastoral Perspectives in Eastern Africa after Vatican II- 4th – 11th September, 1967, St. Mary’s School- Nairobi, Kenya, 1970: The Priest in Africa Today- 3rd – 10th August 1970, Dominican Convent School Lusaka, Zambia, 1973: Planning for the Church in Eastern Africa in the 1980’s-14th – 23rd December 1973, St Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary Nairobi, Kenya. 1976: Building Small Christian Communities in Eastern Africa-13th – 23rd July 1976, St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary Nairobi, Kenya,

1979: The Implementation of the AMECEA Bishop’s Pastoral Priority of Building Small Christian Communities: An Evaluation- 8th – 16th August 1979, St. Peter’s Major Seminary Zomba, Malawi, 1982: Families: Truly Christian and Truly African- 22nd – 28th August 1982 K.T.T.C. Nairobi, Kenya.

1986: Families: Truly Christian and Truly African- 28th April – 10th May 1986, Cooperative College Moshi, Tanzania, 1992: Evangelism with its Central Issues: Inculturation, Small Christian Communities and Priestly, Religious and Christian formation- 15th – 30th August 1992, St. Dominic Major Seminary Lusaka, Zambia.

1995: The Role of the Church in Development in the Light of the African Synod- 6th – 20th August 1995, St. John the Baptist Major Seminary Mangochi, Malawi,
1999: Formation of Agents of Evangelization- 26th July – 8th August, Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) Nairobi, Kenya.

2002: Deeper Evangelization in the new millennium-14th – 27th July 2002, Kurasini
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 2005: Responding to the challenges of HIV / AIDS within the AMECEA Region 3rd- 11th June 2005 Mukono, Uganda, 2008: Reconciliation through Justice and Peace in AMECEA Region 27th June – 7th July 2008 Lusaka, Zambia.

June 27- 6 July 2011-AMECEA Family of God celebrating a Golden Jubilee of Evangelization in solidarity- Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya- AMECEA Golden Jubilee/ 17th Plenary Assembly.

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
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Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

KENYA: FIFTY YEARS OF SERVICE AMECEA IS STILL FACED WITH MANY CHALLENGES

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from ouko joachim omolo

Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
KAREN-NAIROBI
TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 2011
TAKE-1

As Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA), a Catholic service organization for the National Episcopal Conferences of the eight countries of Eastern Africa, namely Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia and Djibouti -Somalia as affiliate members celebrate a Golden Jubilee of Evangelization in Solidarity, it is still faced with many challenges.

Some of the challenges include the challenge to develop a culture of peace, need to strive for the right relationships within the Church, promotion of ecological justice, formation of Christian conscience among the people and Christians, lack of foundations to stand polarization, and lack of solidarity among Christians as compared to other denominations.

Other challenges include need for Church to take an active role in politics, strategy to make the social teaching of the Church a reality, emphasis in human development, the family, that is, children, parents, collaborators and friends to be deeply evangelized, the formation of the pastoral agents; religious men and women, priests, and bishops and to prioritize the values of reconciliation.

From June 27 through July 6, 2011 Kenya Episcopal Conference (KEC) has been accorded the honour of hosting the 17th Plenary Assembly which will also mark the Golden Jubilee for AMECEA. The venue is at Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), Langata-Karen.

The meeting will be officially opened by President Mwai Kibaki of Republic of Kenya on Wednesday June 29, 2011 at 0945hrs. It will be the Solemnity of St. Peter and Paul and the Holy Mass will be in honour of Pope Benedict XVI on the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of his priestly ordination. Main celebrant will be Archbishop Alain Paul Lebeaupin- Apostolic Nuncio in Kenya.

The vision of AMECEA is: A Holy Spirit filled family of God, committed to Holistic Evangelization and Integral Development. Its mission is to inspire and empower God’s family in AMECEA to a credible and prophetic witness to Christ, by promoting unity, justice, peace, and solidarity.

Some of the themes for discussion include a theological frame-work for addressing the quality dimension of evangelization in the AMECEA region, Justice, Peace and reconciliation, the role of Church leadership/ Bishops in the enhancement of evangelization in solidarity in AMECEA region, Good governance among others.

In evangelization, the challenges AMECEA Bishops are faced with include the evangelization in relationship with ethnicity, tribalism which in Africa has to remain top agenda. If evangelization is to take root in Africa, credibility and relevance of the Church has to remain evident, especially the tendency of insisting on the institutional Church and not the communitarian Church has to be reformed.

Yet, since the first African to the second Synod up to now regarding reconciliation,
Justice and Peace has left a negative impact on our social life in the sense that it lacks a common approach in solving problems and peace building, proper understanding of Catholic faith by Catholics and poor training of agents of evangelization including catechists and Social Teaching of the Church as a priority.

Other challenges the AMECEA Bishops are faced with include proper democracy in many African countries, poorly managed political elections, conflicts, poverty, poor health care, poor education, globalization, ecological imbalance and brain drain.

If we take country by country represented by AMECEA and begin with Eritrea, politically is one party system under transitional government. As such it does not have term limit for presidential elections.

This is because the new constitution is not honoured. This loophole gives the president power to postpone elections indefinitely like what it did in 2001. So the president can manipulate and that is why human rights are rated very low. Democratic space is almost zero.

This has resulted to Eritrean Churches to suffer a great deal in the hands of President Afwerki. His government has been seeking to possess by force the infrastructures of the Church sponsored Schools and Hospitals and vehicles.

In neighbouring Ethiopia the story is the same. Human rights abuses are on the increase daily, massive rigging, manipulation of NEBE (National Election Board of Ethiopia), arbitrary arrests and killing of protesters among others.

In Sudan even though according to Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA), the key elements of the peace deal are being ignored. Nothing like media freedom that is why State-run radio and TV reflect only government policy since Sudan TV has a permanent military censor to ensure that the news reflects official views of the government. Abused human rights still a big problem.

In Uganda even though it is thought to be a democratic country, still there is no freedom of expression. President Yoweri Museveni has dominated the country for 25 years and still he won again another term.

Museveni believes no Ugandan apart from him can rule Uganda. His main rival, Dr Kizza Besigye from the opposition Forum for Democratic Change has faced treason and rape charges – as well as terrorism charges in a military court – which his supporters say are politically motivated.

He had to influence Parliament to abolish a constitutional limit on presidential terms in 2005, paving the way for him to seek a third elected term. He has also imposed severe restrictions on multi-party politics.

In Kenya the story is the same. No president wants to leave power not until his second term ends. It explains why presidential election on December 27, 2007 were protested by Kenyans when President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner and sworn in on December 30, despite opposition leader Raila Odinga’s claims of victory.

The violence left over a thousand people dead and property worth billions destroyed. Still there are over 30, 000 Internally Displaces Persons (IDPs) who have not been resettled despite demonstrations that the government should do so. Apart from manipulation of elections, corruption and high level scandals still the order of the system. Gap between the rich and the poor is ever increasing.

Although in Malawi relatively the road to the state house and the legislative house can be said to be rather peaceful, especially because the actual 2004 election process did not seem turbulent, the fact remains that there are irregularities surrounding Malawi general elections according to election observers.

The irregularities range from the registration of voters, verification of the voters’ roll, primaries for respective political parties, and nomination of Presidential and Parliamentary candidates to the ongoing campaign period.

In Zambia the story of rigged elections are the same. Michael Sata had to go to court after he had claimed that Rupiah Banda rigged the election. But like many Africa countries the ruling of the courts are always in favour of the president since he controls judiciary. Because foreign miners are getting it almost free, the economy of Zambia has declined, with Zambian kwacha going down to the USD very steadily.

Although in Tanzania the president is to go for the second term, practically no president has been defeated until he ends his term as required by the constitution. Poverty levels are steadily very high due to bad governance and corruption. The mining-displacement still is a big problem in Tanzania. This is not to mention education and health challenges.

Yet still, in AMECEA regions the number of people living with HIV cannot afford medicine. Many people, especially children are dying of malaria almost daily. Conflicts are still rampant in some African countries.

Root causes of the conflicts are ethnic tensions, political instability, poverty, manipulation scarcity of basic needs, water supplies, grazing land; famine, internally displaced persons (IDPS) and refugees, proliferation of small arms contributing to civil strife and cattle rustling; land grabbing, witch hunting, women and gender based violence, escalation of terrorism and fundamentalism among others.

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
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00800, Westlands
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Tel 254-20-4441372
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

WHY STORIES ON GAYS AND LESBIANS ARE NO LONGER A SHOCK IN KENYA

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BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 2011

Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

Even though in most societies, the only known marriage is between man and woman, the gay communities do not to admit this fact, even the fact that God created Adam and Eve for the purpose of procreation and not same sex partnership.

A story appearing in one of the daily newspapers today that there has been an increase in the number of men and women claiming to be lesbians or gays is just few stories revealing that gays and lesbians live among us and will always be with us.

For many Kenyans it came as a big shock that the practice thrives in Eldoret Town, especially in Huruma estate in Uasin Gishu County. In Eldoret the gays even have their website dating and charting lines-Men seeking men, Eldoret, Kenya – GAY Adult Singles – gay dating …

The story of Mercy Wafula and Amondi Lavenda who are living together as husband and wife give the picture that same sex marriage is a reality in Kenya that cannot be denied. The story describes how the relationship between Mercy and Lavenda started while in high school when she was in form three while her partner was in form one.

This is not the first time media reported how lesbianism is taking root in most of Kenyan girls’ boarding schools. Early this year many Kenyans were treated to shocking news when it was revealed that three female students were taken to court for assaulting another female student for refusing to take part in lesbianism affairs.

There are several stories and narratives about this issue- with one schoolgirl narrating how she was involved in lesbianism when she was15 years. She got interested when she saw her friends in school teaching themselves how to kiss and how they experimented with each other before they can actually kiss a boy.

There was nothing Jane (not her real name) could do when she joined high school, but to be involved in kissing which always ended in an affair. Her partner was in form three and she describes how they loved each other to the extent that they could not do very well in class.

What they did at night was ever kissing even if that night they could not engage in sexual affairs. When she tried to come out of this habit it was not so easy for Jane. The more she tried to come out the more she found herself in the affair.

Because Jane was so beautiful other girls she said also tried to lure her into affairs but she was afraid of Rose (not her real name) her partner with whom she was in love- in case she discovered that she was moving with other girls.

Similar story appearing last year in some of our local dailies also revealed that the 19-year-old schoolgirl with five same-sex partners -one of them 15 years her senior-were in serious lesbianism affairs.

According to the story she could no longer stand her lesbian lifestyle, despite the fact that it was at odd with the norms according to which she was raised. She knew all along that the act was not proper but she just found herself, not only doing it but enjoying it as well.

The habit is not only with students, but even teachers with students like the story of Rosemary (not her real name), a form two student who media reported recently to have fallen in love with a teacher in an all-girls boarding school.

According to the story, since she was a class prefect, Ms Caroline-her biology teacher used to tell her that every evening she collects all the assignments-take to her room for corrections. It was here that the teacher slowly lured her to an affair until she finished form four.

Rosemary had lost both parents so she was an orphan. The teacher assured her that she would take care of her transport home, give her pocket money and do her some shopping when school opens. So that could be the reason she accepted to have an affair with Caroline.

Rosemary who finished her forth form last year and now looking forward to joining aviation college says she still have strong feelings for her Caroline and during December and April this year she had to pay her a visit for one week.

Like Rosemary, according to today’s story it took Mercy quite some time to express her feelings to Lavenda, as she did not know how she would react. “I could watch her daily leave for classes, since we shared the dormitory. Her beauty, body size and elegant walking style summarised her whole being.”

And the story continued: “I decided to start by being her friend -call it courtship; we could go for meals together. I would buy her “escort” (bread, ndazi, samosa, etc) during breakfast and even help her wash her clothes so that I could win her.”

It takes time to get used to the habit, but as media reports it happened when rain started and decided to stay back in the dormitory as they waited for the rain to stop so that they could proceed to the classroom for preps-and as they were lying in their beds when other girls had gone, she kissed Lavenda and that was how their long anticipate affair began.

Recently Ms Nancy Ms Baraza became under heavy attack when she said she has through her research established that the Kenya Medical Research Institute puts the gays and lesbians at 15 per cent of the Kenyan population, which the National Aids and STIs Control Programme is grappling with.

She became under attack because according to the vast majority of Kenyans it is not true that there are many gays and lesbians in Kenya- it is just the creation of the media they believe.

Parliament was specifically thrown into an uproar last week after Nominated MP Millie Odhiambo claimed that 15 per cent of her colleagues are gay. Her remarks drew sharp criticism and numerous points of order from MPs who demanded that she substantiate her claim or withdraw and apologise.

Millie, who was seconding the motion moved by the chairman of the Constitution Implementation and Oversight Committee Abdikadir Mohammed, stood her ground saying she was quoting from a report presented to the committee by lawyer Betty Murungi.

Only assistant minister Kilemi Mwiria came to her defence confirming that the report had been tabled before the committee. But still even after Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo informed the House that the report indicated that 15 per cent of all Kenyans are gay, MPs still denied there are such a big number of gay and lesbians in Kenya.

One fact for sure it is true-that the number of gays and lesbians is on the increase, not only in Kenya but a global concern. Last year groups of gays kissed publicly as Pope Benedict XVI visited Spain- Gay kiss protest against Pope | Video | Reuters.com.

A crowd of about 200 gay men and women in Barcelona staged a massive make-out session in front of the Pope Sunday as he was driven through town in the bullet-proof Popemobile on his way to celebrate mass at one of the city’s basilicas.

While Christians maintain that man was created by God and given the power to multiply, like scientists gay people say man evolved from apes which derive from an apelike ancestor that lived on earth a few million years ago through a combination of environmental and genetic factors which emerged as a species to produce the variety of ethnicities seen today.

They rely on scientific study of evolution which began in the mid-nineteenth century, when research into the fossil record and the diversity of living organisms convinced most scientists that species evolve as it became widely accepted in the 1870s- caricatures of Charles Darwin with an ape or monkey body that symbolised evolution.

The gays also argue that since the first eleven chapters of Genesis have been relegated to the category of myths, not real history, they only contain spiritual truth, but they cannot be taken seriously as records of real people and events.

According to Genesis 1:-2:24 the creation week consists of eight divine commands executed over six days, followed by a seventh day of rest- First day: God creates light The light is divided from the darkness, and “day” and “night” are named. Second day: God command—to divide the waters above from the waters below. The firmament is named “skies”.

Third day: God commands the waters below to be gathered together in one place, and dry land to appear. God commands the earth to bring forth grass, plants, and fruit-bearing trees. Fourth day: God creates lights in the firmament-to separate light from darkness and to mark days, seasons and years.

Fifth day: God commands the sea to “teem with living creatures”, and birds to fly across the heavens. He creates birds and sea creatures, and commands them to be fruitful and multiply. Sixth day: God commands the land to bring forth living creatures. He makes wild beasts, livestock and reptiles.

He then creates man in His “image” and “likeness”. He later gives him a wife as a helper after God realised the man was lonely. God named man Adam and woman Eve. They are told to “be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it.” The totality of creation is described by God as “very good.” Seventh day: God, having completed the heavens and the earth, rests from His work, and blesses and sanctifies the seventh day.

While the gays refute first eleven chapters of Genesis as true story, Christians maintain it is since in Genesis 5, the record of Adam ends with the expression “this is the book of the generations of Adam.”

Christians argue there is no reason to suppose that Adam and his descendants were not able to write and keep records, remembering that on the sixth day of creation Adam named all the animals, thus demonstrating his intellectual capacity.

This study of Genesis Chapter 5 is the fifth of eleven in a series of studies of the first 11 chapters of the Book of Genesis. It portrays that the book was the written account of Adam’s line. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them “man.”

And when Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. 4 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died.

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
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Tel 254-20-4441372
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

Kenya: NCCL endorses nominees for CJ & Deputy

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From: Bishop Dr. Washington Ogonyo Ngede
MAY 18, 2011
NYANZA COUNCIL OF CHURCH LEADERS
PRESS RELEASE

WE as Church leaders from Nyanza Province representing 200 denominations would like to take this early utmost opportunity to laud the two principals in the Grand Coalition Government for endorsing the two nominees for the positions of the Chief Justice and his deputy.

The noble move, we feel will go along way in jumpstarting the much anticipated reforms which Kenyans have been fighting for over the last four decades.

Therefore it is our humble belief and submissions that Honorable members of the august house will emulate the two principals and endorse the names that have already been endorsed by his Excellency the President of the Republic of Kenya and the Right Honorable Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga.

As senior clergy from this part of the country we would like to in the strongest terms possible condemn a section of church leaders and members of the political wing that are hell bent on sabotaging the nomination and subsequent appointments of the two constructional office holders.

Kenyans should, in their deep sense of understanding should ignore the prophets of doom and support the anticipated reforms for those against the same are anti reformists at the end of the day.

It is our humble view that further debates over the two appointments will further heighten political temperatures in the country for the whole process was done in a very transparent manner in full public glare.

The two principals should be lauded for endorsing the two names hence the need for Kenyans to support the same.

Kenyans have been yearning for a new constitution hence the need to fast track the same before the next general elections. Mps should now move with speed and complete the remaining set of legislations that are pending in the house.

Of most urgency, we also believe, is the need to sort out the impasse in the house legal and Justice Committee Affairs since these are some of the bottle necks on the road to a new constitutional dispensation.

God bless Two Principals and God bless Kenya.

Bishop Dr. Washington Ogonyo Ngede. Archbishop Julius Otieno

CHAIRMAN: NYANZA COUNCIL OF CHURCH LEADERS

Still He Walked

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From: Harold A

He could hear the crowds screaming “crucify” “crucify”…

He could hear the hatred in their voices,

These were his chosen people.

He loved them,

And they were going to crucify him.

He was beaten, bleeding and weakened…

His heart was broken,

But still He walked.

He could see the crowd as he came from the palace.

He knew each of the faces so well.

He had created them.

He knew every smile, every laugh, and every shed tear,

But now they were contorted with rage and anger

His heart broke,

But still He walked.

He felt alone.

His disciples had left, denied, and even betrayed him.

He searched the crowd for a loving face

And he saw very few.

Then he turned his eyes to the only one that mattered

Knowing that he would never be alone.

He looked back at the crowd…

At the people who were spitting at him

Throwing rocks at him and mocking him

And He knew that because of Him,

They would never be alone.

So for them, He walked.

The sounds of the hammer striking the spikes echoed through the crowd.

The cheers of the crowd, as his hands and feet were nailed to the cross,

Intensified with each blow.

And God’s heart broke.

He had let His son walk.

Jesus could have asked God to end his suffering,

But instead He asked God to forgive.

Not to forgive him, but to forgive the ones who were persecuting him.

As he hung on that cross, dying an unimaginable death,

He looked out and saw, not only the faces in the crowd,

But also, the face of every person yet to be,

And his heart filled with love.

As his body was dying, his heart was alive.

Alive with the limitless, unconditional love he feels for each of us.

That is why He walked.

When I forget how much My God loves me,

…I remember his walk.

When I wonder if I can be forgiven,

…I remember his walk.

When I need to be reminded of how to live like Christ,

…I think of his walk.

And to show him how much I love him,

…I wake up each morning, turn my eyes to him,

……And I walk.

—
Thanks and regards,

Harold

That which does not kill me makes me stronger.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Reflections from the Bible-The Kenyan case

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fromPaul Liyai

Dear Fellow Kenyans,

I was told of a story about King Mumia Nabongo of the Wanga who was invited to Britain by the King of England. He traveled by road to Mombasa and was to board a ship or steamer to Britain. When he arrived at the port, I am not sure if it was Kilindini or Shimoni, but I was told in Mombasa. He is reported to have exclaimed, “Yeah! We have come all the way from Mumias and arrived here very well, but now how are we going to travel over the water? With that, he declined traveling and decided to go back home.

The story of Mumia above may be true or just a fable but I find it to be a narration intended to enforce a useful truth namely; if you can not swim why dive in the water? If you are not religious why delve in matters religion? If you know all the wisdom of the world then you do not need go to school because schools are built for fools. The same applies to Christianity or Islam or for that matter, Religion. It is those who find themselves wanting, that look for something to compensate for their inadequacy. It is the hunger in a boy’s/girl’s stomach that compels him/her to find food and not the sound of the bell”. Therefore, for those who claim to be ‘atheists’- for according to me there are such beings in Africa- you are under no obligation to read these series of reflections because they are heavily hinged on God the Creator’s Manual called the Holy Bible.

As for me, I hesitate to jump into politics, like Nabongo who refused to travel on water, because it is a sea whose waters I can not navigate through. That is why I would want to look at the Kenyan case from a Biblical perspective. You are free to agree to disagree.

Kenya as a nation can NEVER write her History without Christianity, Islam and Religion- in this case African traditional Religions- I say this because I see a lot of parallels in the events of the time of Jeremiah and what is happening now in Kenya. Please read with me the following passage Jeremiah 13

12 “Say to them: ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Every wineskin should be filled with wine.’ And if they say to you, ‘Don’t we know that every wineskin should be filled with wine?’ 13 then tell them, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am going to fill with drunkenness all who live in this land, including the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets and all those living in Jerusalem. 14 I will smash them one against the other, parents and children alike, declares the LORD. I will allow no pity or mercy or compassion to keep me from destroying them.’”

For those of you who may have eyes, you may have observed that many religious leaders joined politics because they argued that when they take over from non-religious leaders, they will lead with humility and godly wisdom. Somebody in this forum said, the forest changed but the monkeys remain the same. If an individual is corrupt,he/she is corrupt from the inside, it is his/her nature that has grown for a long time and it takes God, education, training personal will and discipline to unlearn such a behaviour.

That is to say, we keep on saying that we have a new Kenya, a new dispensation etc and the people who are saying these are the same people who in leadership then. There is nothing new when Kibaki, Kalonzo, Kenyatta, Ole Ntimama, Mudavadi, Khaniri, Wekesa, Muthaura, Ruto William, Ongeri and others are still in power. If we want change, then let us have new people.

Where is Bishop Margaret Wanjiru? Where is Mutava Musyimi? Where is Sheikh Dor? Where is their voice? As both religious and political leaders, what does God tell them about Shuttle Diplomacy? What is God’s view of what is happening now in Kenya and even in Africa?

The answer is in those words given to Jeremiah, then tell them, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am going to fill with drunkenness( of power, corruption, selfish ambitions, tribalism, sexual orgies_ Kakamega and Koinange-the love of money and self)all who live in this land, including the kings who sit on David’s throne,( those who are political leaders like Kalonzo, Raila, Kibaki, William Ruto etc) the priests, the prophets and all those living in Jerusalem( religious leaders including pastors, Imams, priests.orkoyiots Laibons and seers of different ethnic communities like the council of elders eg the Kaya ,kalenjin,njuri njeke etc )14 I will smash them one against the other,( see what is happening now between the Rift Valley leaders and others in ODM, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSMso53vPVk, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HYylzgiSyw&playnext=1&list=PLA91672A68313303C)

Children have killed their own parents and parents killed their own children because of what can not be owned for ever. This also happened during the days of Jeremiah as recorded here that they too will get drunk with envy anger and vengeance; and all these evils are rooted in the heart of man. Genesis 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually …,Mark 7:21-23: “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, .,”There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him…For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, … Look at these videos
parents and children alike, declares the LORD. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYsmHVJXcqM&feature=related

Now if you look at the following passage you will see another parallel with what is happening in the North of Africa. Kenyan traditional leaders went to Libya LOOK AT THESE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gkyjM7mkoM NOW read the following

18 Say to the king and to the queen mother,
“Come down from your thrones,
for your glorious crowns
will fall from your heads.”
19 The cities in the Negev will be shut up,
and there will be no one to open them.
All Judah will be carried into exile,
carried completely away.
20 Look up and see
those who are coming from the north.
Where is the flock that was entrusted to you,
the sheep of which you boasted?
21 What will you say when the LORD sets over you
those you cultivated as your special allies?
Will not pain grip you
like that of a woman in labor?
22 And if you ask yourself,
“Why has this happened to me?”—
it is because of your many sins
that your skirts have been torn off
and your body mistreated.
23 Can an Ethiopian[b] change his skin
or a leopard its spots?
Neither can you do good
who are accustomed to doing evil.
24 “I will scatter you like chaff
driven by the desert wind.
25 This is your lot,
the portion I have decreed for you,”
declares the LORD,
“because you have forgotten me
and trusted in false gods.
26 I will pull up your skirts over your face
that your shame may be seen—
27 your adulteries and lustful neighings,
your shameless prostitution!
I have seen your detestable acts
on the hills and in the fields.
Woe to you, Jerusalem!
How long will you be unclean?”

The next commentary will be short and will deal with religious leaders. Remember “he whose mouth is full never speaks”
Paul

—
Muliro Gardens PICS: http://bit.ly/gkOefj