AFRICA/KENYA - The Bishops invite to moderate the tones in the campaign before the vote on August 9

Nairobi (Agenzia Fides) - "We pray for them that they don't continue like that because everyone from the children are hearing our leaders exchanging words at a time they should be concentrating in building peace", says His Exc. Msgr. Salesius Mugambi, Bishop di Maru, referring to the current public dispute between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto.
Msgr. Mugambi read a statement signed on behalf of the Bishops of Kenya by the President of the Bishops' Conference His Exc. Mgr Martin Kivuva Musonde, Archbishop of Mombasa, in which he urges the two highest levels of the State to act in moderation in view of the proximity of the general elections on August 9.
Msgr. Mugambi appealed to the Transition Committee and other civil servants charged with ensuring smooth handover of power after the vote.
The Bishop of Maru particularly mentioned workers in key ministries such as Internal Security, Health, Education and National Treasury, asking them to remain dedicated to ensure service delivery systems did not collapse.
"They should focus on serving Kenyans and ensuring that people with bad morals do not loot public resources during the transition period. We have become used to breaking the law in order to seek personal benefit. We are reminding people to follow the law since without it we would have anarchy".
In their statement, the Bishops decried prevalent cases of voter bribery saying the trend threatened poll credibility, and appealed to politicians to stop propagating hatred along political, tribal or religious lines so that "everyone should respect what opponents are saying since each one is entitled to their own opinion".
Outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta supports the main opposition candidate, Raila Odinga, who is running against Vice President William Ruto. Odinga threatened to boycott the August 9 vote if the electoral commission does not have the manual electoral census in addition to the electronic one. According to Odinga, rigging is taking place in at least 10,000 polling stations to benefit Ruto, who could illegally obtain 2 million votes. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 12/7/2022)

Share:

bishops

---

---

elections

---

---