Yes win: Clergy urge new law changes

Religious leaders have urged Kenyans to start preparing amendments to address flaws in the proposed constitution in case the Yes side wins during the referendum.

Under the Ufungamano Joint Forum for Religious Organisations, the clergy led by Catholic head John Cardinal Njue said serious work must immediately begin to address the flaws in the document.

“The reality is that some serious work must be done immediately in order to sort out the flaws in the PNC (proposed new constitution). It is therefore important that Kenyans of goodwill must now focus on the work which will need to be done,’ said a statement signed by Cardinal Njue and Rashmin Chitnis from the Hindu Council of Kenya.

The call for Kenyans to prepare to correct faults in the proposed constitution, particularly from Cardinal Njue is interesting coming only a week after he led Catholic bishops in issuing a pastoral statement urging its flock to reject the document.

Vote No

The Catholic Church like many other Christian groups have been urging their followers to vote No during the referendum on the basis of the various flaws.
In particular, the Church objects to the section of Article 26 which empowers doctors to end a pregnancy if it endangers the woman’s life or she needs emergency treatment.

Christian leaders are also opposed to the retention of kadhi courts in the proposed constitution under Article 169 and 170, which limit their authority to disputes over personal status, marriage, divorce or inheritance, where all the parties are Muslims and agree to take the case to a Kadhi.

But at Tuesday's press conference, the religious leaders pledged their full support to efforts to correct the flaws should the proposed constitution pass during the referendum on August 4.

“In this work, U-JFRO would like to be counted,” the leaders said.

The religious leaders stated that there will be no winners or losers during the referendum and therefore called for restraint and tolerance of those with opposing views.

“There should be no jubilation on whether the Yes or the No carries the day. The reason is simple. If the PNC passes, it will become the instrument for governance for all of us. If it is rejected, we shall all stay with the current constitution.”