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Kenyan government clamps down on church-run civic educationBy Cathy MajtenyiIt all started innocently enough. Fr. Michael Rop, parish priest at Mokwo Catholic Parish in the Diocese of Eldoret, Western Kenya, began last year to ask some tough political questions in his homilies and civic education workshops. One question that was particularly bothering the 40-year-old cleric was: Why did the Kenya government allocate Minister of Trade and Industry Nicholas Biwott a 1,000-acre plot carved out of the nearby Kaptagat Forest, especially since the land had previously been set aside to settle landless and poor squatters in the area?Biwott, who is also the area's Member of Parliament, apparently did not take kindly to such inquiries from the church. His supporters and other pro-government activists harassed Rop, accusing him of sexual harassment, threatening to evict him from the area, disrupting council parish meetings, and doing other things to undermine the priest. The drama culminated on Sunday, July 1, when armed police sealed off entrances to Mokwo Parish in an attempt to stop Bishop Cornelius Korir of Eldoret from entering Holy Family Catholic Church. The police's attempt failed because they didn't realize that Korir had spent the previous night in the church compound. For almost a solid week after that, the Rop-Biwott confrontation was headline news. When the land in question was degazetted and a title issued on December 7, 1995, Biwott had said that he would use the land a site for public facilities that would help poor and underprivileged children. However, Rop was quoted in the July 4 and 10 editions of The Daily Nation, Kenya's national newspaper, as saying that Biwott told him personally that the land was for private use. Biwott is said to be constructing a monument for his late mother, Mama Maria Soti, on that land. In a three-page press release he issued 10 days after the police blockade of Holy Family, Biwott had re-iterated his position that the land would be used to "assist and uplift the educational standards in the area." He also said that land allocated to the Maria Soti Educational Trust actually measured 161.5 hectares (approximately 400 acres) and not 1,000 acres as claimed. Villagers were trying to slander his name, the bishop has the right to deploy his clergy wherever he wished, and that "I have at no time sought to challenge, disregard or interfere with [clergy] in any way," said Biwott. The Eldoret Diocese responded with its own press release the next day. If Biwott is innocent of inciting his followers to evict Rop from the area, said Fr. Francis Moriasi, the diocese's vicar-general, then Biwott should distance himself from, and attempt to break up, his supporters who are causing trouble. "Let those who are still threatening Fr. Rop renounce their threats, and let Fr. Rop continue to serve God and the Word of God without fear or favour," said Moriasi. He also said that the District Commissioner's office has confirmed that Biwott's land measures 1,000 acres, and schools in the area only take up about 20 acres or so, he said. "The excision from a forest of such large acreage has to be questioned and justified." In early July, Korir and Bishop John Njue, chairman of the Kenya Episcopal Conference (KEC), told Catholic Information Service for Africa (CISA) that the Rop-Biwott confrontation was fundamentally a clash between church and state over civic education programs. "The biggest 'crime' that Fr. Michael Rop has committed is that he tried to educate the people through civic education," the bishops told CISA. Indeed, the issue of land ownership, allocation, and use is a political hot button in Kenya and is one of several sensitive issues - constitutional reform and voters' rights being examples of others - that constitute the backbone of civic education programs taking place in dioceses all across the country.
Only politicians can educateKenyan President Daniel arap Moi's announcement on July 21 is the most convincing evidence of the bishops' view and shows how nervous the state is of initiatives to inform people of their rights. On that day, Moi said that only politicians would be allowed to carry out civic education programs, as selfish "foreigners" were manipulating the church and non-government organizations through their programs. "No donor has a right to decide the destiny of Kenya," Moi was quoted as saying in the July 22 The Sunday Nation. "They are taking advantage to hire thugs who were not elected by the people. This is total contempt of Kenyans' right to chart their destiny through their elected leaders."Moi's declaration follows a Constitutional Review Commission hearing the day before at which Biwott and Cabinet Ministers Henry Kosgey and Julius Sunkuli said that the church was "hijacking" the national civic education program. The KEC was unfazed by Moi's announcement. "If you want to enslave people, then you have to keep them in perpetual ignorance," said Anthony Njui, national executive secretary of KEC's Justice and Peace Commission. "Moi has never been comfortable with civic education." Njui said that government should not be pointing fingers at the church and non-government organizations (NGOs) for conducting civic education programs, because every political meeting, rally, or even billboard can be considered "civic education." In fact, the term refers to any public information campaign, be it to educate people on the dangers of HIV/AIDS or anything else, he said. Instead, the government is ultimately afraid of losing its power come Election Day next year if people become aware of their rights, said Njui. "He [Biwott] has seen what a small, small parish, what a small group, what an individual who is an agent of change, Fr. Rop, can do. People begin to question, why?" The Catholic Church first started its civic education program in 1988 when the Justice and Peace Commission was formed, said Njui. Voter education is only a small part of the program, which looks at political, social, and economic issues. Constitutional reform - which has been in the works for many years - and voter education fall under the "democracy and governance" thematic area of the church's civic education program, said Njui. Currently, justice and peace offices in dioceses across Kenya are conducting workshops and other events on this theme, to help prepare the faithful for the 2002 elections.
Church gears up for electionThe church will not be deterred by Moi's words, said Njui. The Constitution of Kenya Review Commission, which reports to the government, had offered the church its civic education curriculum, to be distributed to the faithful through the dioceses. "They recognize our churches," he said. "We've been there; we've been working on these issues.""The Catholic Church and the NCCK [National Council of Churches of Kenya] have taken a strong position against bad governance," noted Oumo Akoth, program officer at the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC). He said that their "prophetic missions" have made those in power nervous. People have the right to know the links between poverty and bad governance, said Akoth. "We will not take his [Moi's] words." Akoth said the KHRC predicts that the upcoming elections will be more violent than in past years. "Our fear is that the [candidates'] private armies are now solidifying." In general, relations between the state and church have been rocky, particularly over the past year. At the time of his murder last year, Mill Hill Missionary Fr. John Kaiser was investigating several cases in which Sunkuli allegedly raped young women. Recently, the Kenyan media has reported that Sabaot leaders under the direction of Councillor Pius arap Kauka have threatened to kill Fr. Gabriel Dolan, coordinator of Kitale Diocese's Justice and Peace Commission, if he visits a farm in Trans Nzoia District that is occupied by landless squatters who the government evicted from Kiboroa Forest years ago. The leaders say that the land is legally owned by a cooperative society, while Dolan questions the farm's sale and asks why the thousands of squatters living on the land weren't informed and given first preference. The church must remain vigilant in protecting its civic education work, say church and NGO officials. "Mr. Biwott did not mention the civic education program but he knows that the right of the church to conduct such programs is being opposed for political reasons - and unjustly so because the program merely teaches people their human rights and obligations under the Constitution of Kenya and educates them to think for themselves," Moriasi said in July 10 press release. "Let us hope that in the name of Jesus Christ, peace and justice will prevail." Cathy Majtenyi, a Comboni Lay Missionary, is Managing Editor of Africanews in Nairobi.
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