East African Centre for Law and Justice (EACLJ) Update
The East African Centre for Law and Justice has been hard at work managing a grassroots effort to educate Kenyans on the proposed constitution. There is currently a draft copy of the document which has been approved by the Parliament and scheduled to be voted on via public referendum. On Wednesday, April 21, Executive Director Joy Mdivo sent an update on the progress made through the EACLJ outreach efforts to collect signatures and register citizens to vote on the referendum.
Approximately 2000 youth met for an overnight vigil in Eldoret Deliverance Church. Eldoret was a flashpoint during the post-election violence. Mungai urged the young people to take out the vote and to sign our books. The response was so overwhelming that he had to cancel the signature collection since he was almost being mobbed. Since most were university students, we will be joining them at the campus level to collect the signatures there.
Bishop Mark Kariuki and I traveled to Mombasa to kick off our Upcountry Campaign in the Coast. We met 235 pastors and bishops in Mombasa who are very concerned about the kadhi court issue and have vowed to help us collect signatures. On the same day, we went to Kilifi and met with 80 pastors and church workers who also vowed to help us in the collection of signatures. Their main concerns were with the land issues that are not deemed contentious from a national prospective but are a hot topic in the coastal towns.
A second team, led by Pastor Margaret and a young lawyer named Mungai Kimani, went to Limuru. They met with 81 pastors from all over the area, another geographic post-election flashpoint. The pastors are very keen that we encourage people to take out the vote, as most have lost interest in ever voting again. The pastors also vowed to help us collect signatures.
Mungai and I went to Eastleigh Deliverance Church. Eastleigh is an area in Nairobi that is completely overtaken by the Somali refugees, who live under the oppression of Islamic influence. We were given a 40-minute window of opportunity to speak to the congregation, and afterwards had a desk outside where congregants signed petition books. We also left registration materials with the pastor so that those who had to rush home could stop by later during the week and sign on.
Pastor Margaret and I went to Kericho to meet the regional pastors. About 110 pastors from the Rift Valley Province showed up in support of the draft Constitution; but by the time we were done, they had all changed their minds!
Pastor Margaret and I went to the town of Narok, where we met another 150 pastors. As we experienced in Kericho, many of the attendees intended to support the draft Constitution; but by the time we were done, they better understood the underlying issues regarding the draft language and the need for careful scrutiny.
Mungai went to Daystar University, where they had launched their own campaign. The EACLJ stepped in to co-sponsor the event to enable our message to go far and wide. We will be helping them do a radio promotion on the campus radio, as well as publish extra materials for dissemination to all corners of the university. Daystar has two major campuses in Nairobi and Athi River. We will replicate the information we have gathered from them for use in other universities in the area.
Bishop Kariuki and I traveled to Kisumu. I took a meeting with about 85 inter-denominational pastors, while Bishop took on about 40 Deliverance Church pastors. Kisumu is in Nyanza, which is where Prime Minister Raila comes from, so we had a difficult time convincing them of the need for the Church to stand together and say No. They are cornered however, since they feel very strongly that they must support the Prime Minister. This is actually a prayer point. However, they have invited us to come back and speak to them again.
Tomorrow were having a breakfast with all the gospel artists we can muster and anticipate having about 100 people there. Hopefully, they can do a collaboration song to promote the youth to go get a vote and to also vote No.
Were very excited about our new website, so please check us out at www.eaclj.org!
Joy Mdivo
Executive Director - East Africa Centre for Law & Justice