NAIROBI, Kenya (ABP) — Kenyans voted overwhelmingly Aug. 4 to approve a new, reform-minded Constitution even though some conservative Christian groups in the African nation and the United States have opposed it because of concerns related to Islamic law and abortion rights.
Opponents of the new charter conceded defeat Aug. 5, according to the Associated Press, as election returns showed that nearly 70 percent of voters backed the measure.
Kenya’s National Council of Churches and Roman Catholic bishops strongly opposed the referendum, and the nation’s Anglican leaders also expressed opposition, albeit in more measured terms.
Opponents expressed a host of concerns — including that the document would expand abortion rights. It defines life as beginning at conception, and said abortion would remain illegal in Kenya except in cases where “the life or health of the mother is in danger, or if permitted by any other written law.”
Some U.S. Christian groups accused President Obama’s administration of lobbying to expand abortion rights in Kenya. Family Research Council Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell, in a July 13 post on the conservative website Townhall.com, took note of a trip that Obama’s No. 2 took to Kenya in June.
“Vice President Biden went there specifically to lobby for a new Constitution for Kenya,” Blackwell said. “Article 26 of that new Constitution would repeal the country's long-standing pro-life law on abortion. He spurned the efforts of American-based pro-life groups who are working to prevent this Roe v. Wade of Kenya.”
Some Christian leaders also opposed the Constitution’s creation of Kadhis courts as an alternative for members of the nation’s Muslim minority who want to settle certain disputes according to Islamic law rather than in secular courts.
The courts, according to a draft of the Constitution, could hear cases “for matters such as law relating to personal status, marriage, divorce or inheritance in proceedings in which all the parties profess the Muslim religion and submit to the jurisdiction of the Kadhis courts.”
Kenya’s Anglican leaders said the provisions raised questions about “justice and equality for all religions, the limitation of fundamental rights based on religion, the protection of the right to life and the supremacy of our Constitution in the light of international conventions and treaties.”
CBF missionary: Concerns 'overblown'
Sam Harrell, a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship missionary working in Nairobi, said Aug. 4 that those concerns were “most certainly overblown.”
“With any serious reading of the draft it is evident that abortion remains illegal except in the case where the mother’s life is in danger,” he said in an e-mail interview. “Where some are getting the notion that abortion on demand, gay marriage, etc., etc., are enshrined in the draft remains a mystery. Certainly the American sector of the Religious Right have offered ammunition through their vocal criticism of the Obama administration’s support of the constitutional process, implying that there has been direct funding of one side, the 'yes' side. All information, however, suggests that any funding has been in support of the process, not for any particular side.”
Harrell said the new Constitution would help begin correcting structural inequities that have been in place since Kenya won its independence from the United Kingdom.
“The current Constitution was early on emasculated to ensure that power was concentrated among political elite rather than devolved to the people,” he wrote. “The lack of checks and balances to power and the conflict of interest that exists between the executive and the judiciary in particular has made the wheels of justice to turn slowly, protecting those who have illegitimately benefited from land and property allocations. The fact that several prominent families own vast tracts of undeveloped land while several millions squat illegally is indication that a new order is in order. The new Constitution sets land-ownership limits, among other provisions.”
Harrell said there was more diversity on the question of the new Constitution among rank-and-file believers in the overwhelmingly Christian country than among denominational leaders. Kenya’s main Baptist group remained neutral, he said, encouraging individual members to vote their consciences on the question.
Other Christian leaders, Harrell noted, came out in support of the proposal in the weeks leading up to the vote.
“In the late days of the campaign, several prominent Christians, among them human-rights leaders and others, have publicly supported the draft,” he said. “One full-page ad by ‘Christians for the Constitution’ was a refreshing change from the kind of rhetoric that has dominated ecclesial ranks. Misinformation on the draft has been rampant, necessitating The Nation, Kenya’s most prominent daily [newspaper], to run a column debunking the public pronouncements of many a pulpiteer and politician.”
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Rob Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.