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As Kenya revises constitution, Muslims demand continuation of religious courts
AP (01.05.2003)/ HRWF Int. (01.05.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - On the eve of a conference to fine-tune Kenya's new constitution, several thousand Muslims demonstrated peacefully to demand that religious courts be retained.
Christian groups object to mention of Muslim courts in the constitution, which does not mention other religions.
A monthlong National Constitutional Conference opened this week in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.
Provision for so-called khadi courts was included in Kenya's current constitution, drafted before independence from Britain in 1963, in line with a treaty among Britain, Kenya and the Sultan of Zanzibar.
The sultan relinquished his claim to a 10-mile-wide strip along Kenya's seacoast in return for guarantees to Muslim residents there that included religious courts to handle personal matters.
A government-appointed chief khadi in Mombasa is the senior authority for Kenya's Muslims.
Mohamed Dor, secretary of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya, told the Mombasa demonstrators "the khadi court must be enshrined in the new constitution or else we will secede."
Some Muslim leaders say Kenya's Muslims are a third of the population; academics put the number closer to 5 percent.
Tension mounting over Islamic courts
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (22.04.2003)/ HRWF Int. (01.05.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Religious tensions have started to build up over a proposal to entrench the authority of Islamic courts in Kenya, ahead of a crucial national conference to discuss a new draft constitution next week.
The draft constitution, completed last year by a group of experts and which will be adopted in June this year, has proposed several changes to the current constitution. These include entrenching the already existing Islamic (Khadhi) courts - which preside over Islamic family and personal issues - in the constitution.
Churches and Christian organisations have opposed the proposal, arguing that it would give Islam undue supremacy over other religions in the country. The National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) umbrella body, on Monday called for deleting all religious issues from the constitution, and placing them under specific parliamentary legislation.
NCCK secretary general Mutava Musyimi said Kenya, as a secular state, already had provisions guaranteeing freedom of religion in the current constitution, and therefore it was not necessary to add provisions that seemed to favour one religion.
"The sections are discriminative in nature as they seek to elevate Islamic religious courts, which serve one religious sector," Musyimi told journalists in Nairobi.
Muslims, who make up about 20 percent of Kenya's population, however argue that their rights would not be guaranteed under parliamentary majority rules.
Hamisi Juma, a director of Muslim for Human Rights (MUHURI), a non-governmental organisation, told IRIN that the decision by churches to oppose the proposal on Khadhi courts had been influenced by "foreign" church groups who wanted to reduce the strength of Islam in the country.
"We have to understand what the constitution is all about. It is about protecting the rights of the minority," Juma said. "Our understanding of the whole thing is that there is a hidden agenda to break the influence of Islam in this country. There is a lot of evidence to show that these churches are being pushed from outside."
Campaign for a State religion
The Nation (17.04.2003)/ HRWF Int. (23.04.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A group of churches wants Christianity recognised as the country's official religion.
The draft constitution that states there shall be no state religion should read: "Christianity shall be the official State religion of the Republic of Kenya provided that other religions are free to practise their beliefs," the organisation, calling itself the Kenya Church, said yesterday.
It said Christianity was professed by more than 80 per cent of the population and should therefore be elevated to the official faith.
The group comprises the Deliverance Church, the Kenya Assemblies of God, the Methodist Church and the Gospel Assemblies of God.
It presented its views to the chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee, Mr Paul Muite, at County Hall, Nairobi.
Describing themselves as the voice of the Christians, the churches' leaders said: "If the constitution must recognise the beliefs and practices of specific religions, then, in order to safeguard the interests of the Christian faith, Christianity must of necessity be declared the official religion in Kenya, provided that all other religions are accorded liberty to practise their beliefs."
They said this was the practice in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and England, where they said the religion of the majority was the official faith.
The leaders included Bishop Mark Kariuki and Pastor Margaret Muchai (Deliverance), the Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church, Rev Stephen Kanyaru M'Impwii, Bishop Peter Njiri and the Rev Harris Gachuhi of the Kenya Assemblies of God and Bishop Gerry Kibarabara of the Gospel Assemblies of God.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Church said it was opposed to the entrenchment of the Kadhi court in the new constitution.
The chairman of the Episcopal Conference, Archbishop John Njue, said Kenyans were making the issue unnecessarily controversial and said it could be dealt with without involving the constitution.
Kenyans, he said, should respect religious diversity in the country while recognising that all religions had their laws.
"We should respect the constitution as the basic law governing all religious groups in the country," Bishop Njue said at the Consolata Cathedral Church in Nyeri town.
Meanwhile, the youth want to be represented in the review commission. University and college student leaders said they had been sidelined in the constitution making process.
Speaking at the Nation Centre, they said they were determined to be a part of the reform process.
Mr Paul Simba from Kenya Polytechnic said politicians had asked the youth to surrender their proposals to them, "but we would rather spell them out before the commission ourselves."
"Mr Lumumba told us that the mandate to select who was to be in the meeting lied with the Parliamentary Select Committee. He said he would consult with the Committee over the matter," said Mr Makokha Wanjala of Nairobi University.
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