Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Nairobi (Fides Service) - The President of Kenya Mwai Kibaki announced a national day of inter-religious prayer for today 21 April to commemorate the victims of the air crash last week (see Fides 12 April 2006). On 10 April in thick fog a Y-12 military aircraft carry 17 people, the crew and government members on the way to a meeting to mediate local water and pasture dispute, missed the runway at Marsabit airport and crashed on a hillside. Four people including the pilot escaped with slight injuries but one died on the way to the hospital. Among the dead youth minister Mohammed Kuti, the respective under secretaries for national security and religion authorities and Kenyan Anglican Bishop William Waqo.
According to the local press the President said the death of so many people working for peace and other events which caused grief and concern prompted him to call the nation to prayer. This is the first time that the government calls a holiday for a similar reason.
The President’s initiatives was welcomed by various religious leaders in Kenya. The chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Kenya, Bishop Cornelius Kipng’eno Arap Korir of Eldoret diocese said the proposal was ‘noble’. The Anglican community in Kenya also welcomed the day of prayer although it meant postponing a service to commemorate Bishop William Waqo, one of those killed in the crash.
Over recent months in Kenya there have been serious incidents and violence involving also prominent political leaders. President Kibaki is now in a wheel chair following a serious car accident. Kenya has been devastated by the death of the Vice president, a few months before the inauguration of the new government in December 2002, two air crashes and massacres in northern Kenya in which 150 were killed as well as serious cases of corruption involving several government members. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 21/4/2006, righe 31 parole 391)
