Catholic bishops should be the last to condemn CJ nomination

Posted  Saturday, May 28 2011 at 19:22

This week on Tuesday, Catholic bishops called a press conference to oppose the nomination of Dr Willy Mutunga and Ms Nancy Barasa to the posts of Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice.

But even as they were busy doing so, it was interesting to see the bishops, who had opposed the new Constitution, tell Kenyans that theirs was merely to defend the Constitution. Have they belatedly discovered the Constitution is now worth defending?

The Catholic leadership long lost the moral authority to criticise the appointments since their own Bishop Antony Muheria resigned from the Judicial Service Commission in April.

While he was still its member, JSC had told President Kibaki to rescind his earlier appointments to the Judiciary so that the process, which gave birth to the current nominations, could be started. How can the bishops now turn around to reject the product of a process endorsed by one of them!

Through this member, the Catholic leadership had a great opportunity within the JSC to raise the issues that now bother them.

The four bishops at the press conference amused by the irony of their temerity and high moral standing to condemn Dr Mutunga for wearing a stud in his earlobe which they called unAfrican, and yet the same bishops were adorning strange jewellery such as golden rings on their right fingers and long crucifixes hanging on their necks. How African is the crucifix?

Although the bishops have every right to teach their faithful about their Catholic values, they should not confuse this with the right to pontificate to all Kenyans what values they ought to embrace.

They simply do not have such a right. After all, Kenya is a secular state, which recognises every person’s right of worship.

It was interesting to see how the bishops fumbled when they were asked how they came to the conclusion that the nominees did not meet the values outlined in the Constitution. Does the law talk of religious values as a requirement for appointment to the Judiciary?

Christian leaders should desist from casting the first stone against innocent Kenyans who voluntarily subjected themselves to the constitutional process in the full glare of the media and were found worthy.

Instead the church leaders should endeavour to remove the log from the eye of the church hierarchy, which is bedevilled by homosexuality and paedophilia.

If in Catholicism women such as Ms Barasa are never allowed in positions of influence, bishops should know Kenya is not Catholic and certainly not all Kenyans are Catholics. Are the ‘‘reds’’ and ‘‘watermelons’’ reassembling?

Omole Joseph, via email.