East African Centre for Law and Justice (EACLJ) Update
The East African Centre for Law and Justice, located in Nairobi, Kenya, is hard at work engaging the proposed Constitution on a grassroots and government level. The following is an update on the situation and our progress as an organization:
The EACLJ recently held a consultative forum with members of various professions on the issue of the draft language proposed to the Select Committee on the Constitution. The forum was composed primarily of Christian doctors, lawyers, NGO members and civil society groups. It sought to address the two main Christian issues in the draft Constitution: 1) the Kadhi Sharia-based courts, and 2) the issue of abortion.
In conjunction with Deliverance Church, the EACLJ will be initiating a grassroots effort to bring to light the importance of the new Kenyan Constitution and how it will affect Christians throughout the country. Working with individual local pastors will enable EACLJ to engage on a mass level and use the churchs resources to disseminate the message of the need for civic involvement. Pastors and EACLJ staff will be responsible for collecting petitions which stress the importance of religious freedom and the sanctity of human life.
In addition to the petition process, the Church will be registering concerned Christians to vote on the constitutional referendum. There is a 45-day campaign that will take place for registration, followed by a 30-day period where the respective polls will compile an updated list of voting constituents.
The EACLJ recently partnered with The Christian Women of Kenya, which held a pro-life march on Saturday, March 27, in Nairobi. A large group of Christians attended the event which raised awareness of the need for pro-life language in the new Constitution, as well as educated the attendees on how to engage the issue.