Sabbath Message 8/4/33/120

Dear Friends,

On Sunday the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) held a combined prayer meeting which was a rally to oppose the proposed referendum of the Kenya Constitution. The opposition was to the plan to permit the continuation with an increased constitutional basis of the Islamic Khadi Law Courts in Kenya set up by the British for marriage and inheritance. It is feared that it will slide into full Sharia law under the new constitution; and also to permit abortion on a virtual on demand basis instead of the basis under the constitution of threatening the life of the mother which is the true biblical position.

As part of a power-sharing deal to end deadly riots following elections in December 2007, it was agreed that a new constitution would be written. Supporters of both Mr Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki generally support the draft constitution. The document provides for greater checks on presidential powers and more regional devolution.

The BBC reported that because “an amendment to abolish abortion on medical grounds failed” the NCCK decided to oppose the referendum. That is incorrect. The National Council of Churches of Kenya recommended to the Committee that the abortion should be permitted under emergency circumstances when the life of the mother was threatened and that was rejected and it was decided that a medical practitioner could certify the termination of the pregnancy, seemingly on any grounds, and so the churches had to oppose it. 

CCG has a seat on the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) and has agreed to provide its support to the NCCK to defeat the amendment to the constitution. On Sunday afternoon CCG leaders and members went to the huge rally arranged for Uhuru Park in Nairobi. The name means “Freedom Park.”

By 7 PM over two million people had assembled in Uhuru Park for the rally. One might call it the rally to protect the unborn and the equality of law.
 
The CCG Senior Coordinator says he had seen nothing like it. The rally was immense. It was virtually 10% of the voting populace of Kenya in one place. Then a person or persons within the crowd threw one grenade to move people together and then another two grenades into the groups forcing panic and ultimately killing five people and wounding 75 others who were taken to Nairobi Hospital putting four in ICU at the Kenyatta facility. Another person subsequently died of wounds.

By Tuesday morning 50 people had been treated and released. 20 were still very seriously wounded (VSI) and four were still in Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The CCG member Harrison was released on crutches. We will continue to monitor his condition. Please pray for him.

Parts of the grenade casings were recovered and it has been reported that the grenades were of UK manufacture stamped 2006 and reported as being the same or similar to that issued by the Kenya Government to its armed forces. Kenya is supplied by the UK and the US.

The NCCK has declared and publicly accused the Kenya Government of deliberately instigating this act of terrorism and 20 of the churches on the Council support them in the declaration. CCG supports the NCCK in its position and its opposition to this murder and malicious wounding of innocent people protesting the planned murder of unborn infants in Kenya.  The declaration was published by the BBC on Monday at 20:25 their time.

What has made this crime more insidious is that the President and the Vice President of the USA have unlawfully expended millions of dollars in support of the referendum in Kenya despite it being specifically against the laws of the United States of America.

Deputy President Joe Biden was in Kenya the week before the explosions trying to garner support for the referendum despite it being specifically unlawful for him to do so.

Our people on the Council and the supporters asked him what he was doing there interfering with the due process of Kenya. It has been stated that they don’t seem to care about the laws of either their country or those of another country.

What they have done is effectively place themselves in a position where they could be charged with complicity in state sponsored terrorism. There is little doubt that they should face charges in the US.

After an emergency security meeting, Prime Minister Raila Odinga confirmed it was a grenade attack and said a top police team was investigating it.

All but a handful of ministers in the shaky coalition government are reported as backing a "Yes" vote to the draft charter.

In the BBC report the NCCK were reported as saying:

"Having been informed over and over that the passage of the new constitution during the referendum is a government project, we are left in no doubt that the government, either directly or indirectly, had a hand in this attack," said a statement signed by the National Council of Churches of Kenya and 14 other churches and groups.

"Who else in this country holds explosive devices?" they asked.

The government is calling for an end to the speculation as to who did it and said they will have a police investigation. However the NCCK is heading its own investigations.

We will monitor the events.

It is a matter of note that there was very little coverage of the attack worldwide and the BBC report was incorrect. We will continue on and we will see if this referendum gets through.

Wade Cox