Religious leaders strive to unite Raila, Ruto

A group of religious leaders from mainstream churches and organisations have embarked on spirited efforts to reconcile political nemesis President William Ruto and opposition chief Raila Odinga.

The caucus comprises the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB), National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (SUPKEM), Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya (CIPK), Evangelical Alliance of Kenya (EAK), Organisation of African Instituted Churches (OAIC), the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya and the Hindu Council of Kenya.

The group is this morning scheduled to meet in Nairobi to receive a report from some of the leaders who had earlier been assigned to approach both Ruto and Raila individually for dialogue.

In an exclusive interview with the People Daily yesterday, Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) archbishop Jackson ole Sapit, who is one of the brains behind the effort, says theirs is not to lead Kenya into another Handshake but to ensure the two protagonists can dialogue for the sake of the nation. “Our main concern has been that both sides have turned the country into a campaign mode as they try to outdo each other in a political contest. There are so many challenges that the country faces at the moment and need to be tackled.”

The ACK boss cites the chaos engulfing the implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), the prevailing drought and the high cost of living as some of the most urgent challenges that need to be addressed.

“Elections are over and so is the time for political competition. We are not going to build this country through protests, mass action, blame games, rhetorics and public rallies. The current polarization is going to drag the country behind,” says the archbishop.

The religious leaders, Sapit disclosed, are stressing their efforts towards bringing Ruto and Raila onto a round table because the two are the cause of the apparent stand-off.

“We are not interested in former President Uhuru Kenyatta because he has been quiet because of being engaged in regional politics. We are concentrating on initiating dialogue between Ruto and Raila whom we want to tone down as well as urge their supporters to learn to co-exist,” he said in the interview.

Latest initiative

Other noticeable church leaders involved in the latest initiative include Mombasa Catholic archbishop Martin Kivuva, who has been chairing the caucus, Fr Joseph Mutie of the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya, Sheikh Abdullahi Salat (Supkem), Sheikh Mohamed Khalifa (CIPK), archbishops Philip Anyolo and Anthony Muheria (Catholic), archbishop Dr Timothy Ndambuki (NCCK chairman) and Chris Canon Kinyanjui (NCCK General Secretary).

Sapit was also quick to caution politicians allied to the two leaders against preaching hatred and engaging in inflammatory talk. He cited the case of a certain prominent leader who was recently quoted as equating the country to a shareholding company.

“This kind of talk is reckless and unwarranted. All Kenyans are shareholders because they pay taxes. The government should provide services to all parts of the country and every individual irrespective of their political affiliation,” the cleric cautioned.

The clerics’ latest dialogue initiative comes at a time Raila has announced to stage mass action across the country as he demands for among others, opening the elections servers and action on the cost of living and review of the panel appointed to recruit new electoral commissioners.

The President’s policies, including the removal of subsidies on basic commodities and tax hikes, have given the opposition enough fodder to hit at the government.

Raila has termed the selection panel to pick a new Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) team “rubbish”, saying they do not recognise it.

But President Ruto has dismissed Raila’s demands, and dared him to proceed with the mass protests, as he insisted that nothing would make him back down on the reconstitution of IEBC.

And revising earlier efforts before the General Election to re-unite Uhuru and his then deputy, Ruto, Sapit discloses that they failed to make any progress because both parties had different priorities, ideologies, perception and pride.

Presidential dream

“Both parties were also being held by hardliners as they stuck to their ground. The then Deputy President believed that he was being frustrated by his boss from realising his presidential dream while President Uhuru thought his principal assistant was out to frustrate his development agenda,” he disclosed.

But all their efforts were not wasted as in the end, they managed to convince both Ruto and Uhuru to put the interest of the country before anything else, which led to a peaceful transition.