NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 7 – Kenyan Evangelical Churches have once again threatened to reject the Harmonised Draft Constitution but this time on the premise that it failed to outlaw gay marriages and abortion.
Kenya Christian Constitutional Forum Chairman (KCCF) Bishop Gerry Kibarabara said on Monday that by stating that every adult has a right to marry, the draft as presented leaves a loophole for the two vices.
The leaders urged the Committee of Experts (CoE) on Constitution to clearly outlaw the two illegalities before presenting the draft for a vote.
“We state categorically that life begins at conception and ends in natural death and the draft should be amended to include those specific words,” Bishop Kibarabara said after a meeting of the forum.
“The marriage and family should be clearly defined as between persons of the opposite sex.”
The group faulted the experts for failing to outlaw the vices saying that both the Wako and Bomas drafts had prohibited those two issues.
The churches are also opposed to open opportunity for dual citizenship.
“Dual citizenship should only be allowed for indigenous Kenyans whose both parents are indigenous and not those who acquire citizenship through registration or naturalisation,” said Redeemed Gospel Church Bishop Arthur Kitonga, who also belongs to the forum.
The team said it would present a comprehensive report of these views and many others to the Committee of Experts later in the week.
During the press briefing, the forum continued with its usual verbal attack of the Committee of Experts accusing it ‘of totally ignoring the views of Christians.’ They warned the experts not to undermine their numerical strength saying they would mobilise millions of their members to defeat the new law in the referendum next year should their proposals for amendments are ignored.
The Evangelicals have accused the CoE of propagating vested interests and have already filed a case in court in a bid to stop the review. The Bishops also reiterated that they would not allow the inclusion of the Kadhi’s courts in the constitution.
“If these amendments we have proposed are incorporated into the final draft then all churches in Kenya will support it,” said Bishop Kibarabara.
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