Religious Leaders in Kenya “strongly urge” Legislators to Engage Citizens in the National Dialogue Committee Report

To make the reform process people-driven, the faith-based leaders in Kenya underline the need to publish the NADCO report in “a way accessible to all Kenyans so they understand what is being said about their future.”

“The report by NADCO has recommended 33 amendments to the Constitution of Kenya 2010. Comparatively, the Constitution of Kenya was amended 39 times in the period between 1963 and 2010,” Kenya’s religious leader observe. 

In their considered view, “The proposed amendment of the Constitution, which has been formulated as the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill 2023, is a major engagement that goes beyond the mandate of Parliamentarians alone.”

They urge the Kenyan legislators and Senators to put in place a joint Justice and Legal Affairs Committee that will “visit all the counties to receive feedback from the citizens, and then use that feedback to review the report and proposed legal and policy reforms.”

“Such a process requires a Constituent Assembly whose outcome is thereafter subjected to a referendum. We call upon Parliament to put in place the legal framework of this process to be people-driven,” they say.

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The faith-based leaders lament that although NADCO was formed to address the challenges surrounding the 2022 General Elections, the recommendations of the November 2023 report “are bound to make the journey to the 2027 elections worse than the past cycles.”

In the statement that the auxiliary Bishop of Nairobi, Bishop Simon Peter Kamomoe, NCCK General Secretary, Rev. Canon Chris Kinyanjui, and SUPKEM General Secretary, Abdullahi Salat, signed, the religious leaders also lament lack of awareness about the NADCO report.

“Different surveys have shown that less than 30 percent of the citizens of Kenya have read or are familiar with the NADCO report or the Bills that are amending elections-related laws,” they say in the statement that was read out at Ufungamano House in Nairobi.

They add, “We call upon all our fellow citizens to actively engage in the ongoing reform process. Do not leave the shaping of your future in the hands of the politicians who are primarily driven by their selfish interests.”

The faith-based leaders pledge to use their platforms to educate the people about the NADCO report and urge Kenyans to take time to read the report, and be ready to participate in public forums.