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January 30, 2008

WCC sending team to violence-hit Kenya

PC(USA)’s Kirkpatrick is part of peacemaking delegation

by Ecumenical News International

GENEVA — The World Council of Churches is sending a fact-finding and support team to Kenya, which has been hit by a wave of violence that has resulted in the deaths of more than 800 people following disputed presidential election results.

WCC general secretary the Rev. Samuel Kobia, himself a Kenyan, said on Jan. 29 he hoped Kenya “will overcome the prevailing situation and that the churches will play an important part in speeding up that time.”

The WCC said the Jan. 30-Feb. 3 visit aimed “to express the solidarity of churches worldwide with the Kenyan churches at a particularly challenging time.” The visiting team will investigate how the world’s largest grouping of churches can support Kenyan Christians in their quest for “peace and reconciliation.”

Both global and Kenyan religious leaders have been pressing incumbent President Mwai Kibaki, leader of the Party of National Unity, who was declared the winner in the Dec. 27 elections, and Raila Odinga, of the Orange Democratic Movement, who says the election was rigged, to settle their dispute.

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is helping to mediate in the dispute, opened talks between the two sides on Jan. 29

On the same day, an opposition lawmaker was shot dead as he drove home and, in western Kenya, police and soldiers in helicopters fired on crowds. In some areas the post-electoral violence has turned into inter-ethnic conflict, with tens of thousands of people displaced.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, had visited the country soon after the elections and met leaders from both sides at the behest of the Nairobi-based All Africa Conference of Churches in an effort to mediate.

The WCC said the program for its visit includes meetings with Kenyan religious leaders from different faiths; government officials and opposition leaders; as well as churches, local communities and civil society organizations in Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret, Nakuru and Kakamega.

The Geneva-based WCC brings together 347 churches, denominations and church fellowships in more than 110 countries throughout the world, representing more than 560 million Christians