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KENYA: Bishops call for action on governance, corruption

NAIROBI, 15 November (IRIN) -
The Catholic bishops of Kenya this week urged President Daniel arap Moi to
intensify the fight against corruption within his government in order to
allow it better address poverty alleviation and the provision of basic
services for ordinary citizens.

The bishops, who have just ended their bi-annual Plenary Conference in the
Kenyan capital, Nairobi, stated that corruption and bribery were the main
factors depriving Kenyans of much- needed public services such as
education, health, road maintenance and public administration.

"It is the poor and the powerless who suffer all the time," they added.

"Whilst we religious leaders are aware of the depressed world economic
situation and the adverse climatic conditions, we cannot - [along] with
many serious economists - admit that the government cannot curb the
scandalous corruption which is found at so many levels, even at the upper
levels," they said in a statement made available to IRIN.

The bishops also expressed concern about the rising cost of living in
Kenya, which, they said, placed most basic social services out of reach of
majority of the population of 28 million, according to the statement,
signed by Rt-Rev John Njue of the Kenya Episcopal Conference.

The meeting, which ended on Tuesday, addressed a broad range of issues
concerning Kenyans' standard of living, with particular focus on areas of
concern to the church, such as abortion and HIV/AIDS.

The bishops put many of the growing social ills of the country - from
crime and drug abuse to violence and poverty - down to "bad governance".

"We cannot, as shepherds, but lament that our politicians seem to be
exclusively concerned with staying in power, growing rich and grabbing
land and businesses from the wananchi (citizens). No wonder our youth have
lost hope and do not trust their elders," they said.

The episcopal conference urged the Kenyan government to launch fresh
investigations into the killing last year of Fr John Anthony Kaiser, the
Mill Hill missionary priest who was found dead, with a gunshot wound to
his head, at Morendat, on the Naivasha-Nairobi road, in what church and
human rights groups believe to have been a murder incident.

The Catholic church has rejected analysis from the American Federal Bureau
of Investigations (FBI) and Kenya's Criminal Investigation Department
(CID) which stated that Fr Kaiser, a committed human rights activist, had
committed suicide.

Kenyan human rights groups in August called upon the government to release
the Akiwumi Commission report, which investigated the country’s land
clashes of 1992-97. Fr Kaiser had presented his views to this Commission,
implicating government officials in the clashes, in the year before he
died, they stated.

"We have asked the Attorney-General to allow an inquest but we have not
received a formal reply," the bishops stated after this week's Nairobi
conference.

"Since our request seems to have fallen on deaf ears for questionable
reasons, we are considering other possibilities. We are not giving up,"
they added.

[ENDS]

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[This item is delivered in the "africa-english" service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post
this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2001