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Pro-lifers Urge Kenyan Religious Leaders to Actively Select, Elect Pro-Family Politicians

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Officials of pro-life groups under the Empowered Youth Coalition (EYC) are calling upon religious and community leaders in Kenya to identify and vote for political candidates who stand for the protection of life and family in the August 9 general elections. 

In a Friday, March 4 statement, officials of EYC whose members includes the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), and the Kenya Christian Professionals Forum (KCPF), among others, say they are concerned about the increasing rates of deaths of mothers and unborn children through abortion. 

“It is high time religious and community leaders became more deeply involved in the selection and election of political candidates to ensure those who stand for the protection of life and family are voted in while those who support the killing of the unborn children or destruction of the family are rejected,” EYC officials say.  

They add, “No law-abiding citizen, medical provider, religious leader or politician elected under our constitution should support the deliberate killing of preborn children.”

Officials of the coalition that brings together pro-life youths from across the globe urge religious and community leaders in Kenya “to push back on the urging of legalization and normalization of foeticide in our country.”

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In their March 4 statement, EYC officials call on Kenyans “to respect and value all life, including the life of innocent unborn babies, as is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).” 

“Every termination of pregnancy before the viability of the unborn child destroys the life of the developing child, the life of the mother, and the lives of family and friends,” they say. 

EYC officials further urge lawmakers, magistrates and judges in Kenya to participate in the protection of life and the family through the laws they make and interpret.

To magistrates and judges, they say, “We urge you to keep your covenant with the Kenyan people by upholding the Constitution as drafted.”

“The right to life of the unborn is well protected by the constitution and we urge you to keep your covenant with the Kenyan people by upholding the Constitution as drafted,” EYC officials say, and add, “Article 26 of the 2010 Kenyan constitution states that every person has a right to life and that life begins at conception.”

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EYC officials say that the term abortion, which has been used in the Kenyan Constitution, “needs to be understood in its plain English meaning of deliberately terminating a pregnancy.”

While the Kenyan Constitution allows trained health professionals to give an opinion as to when pregnancy can be “deliberately terminated”, EYC officials say the Constitution “does not allow for the termination of a pregnancy by deliberately killing the unborn person.”

“Terminating a pregnancy by deliberately killing an unborn child, especially by a trained health professional, is immoral, medically unethical and unconstitutional in Kenya!” the pro-lifers say.

Addressing themselves to Kenyan lawmakers, EYC officials say, “Reject bills in parliament that would convert our country to an altar of murder.”

“We urge Kenyan Parliamentarians to only promote legislation that would seek to protect, rather than destroy, the right to life starting at conception,” officials of the pro-life group say.

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“We wish to remind all leaders in our great nation, and those across the continent, including at the AU (African Union), EALA (East African Legislative Assembly), SADC (The Southern African Development Community) and national houses in our nations, that the laws governing any nation belong to the people and are for the people; let us protect and pass laws that protect the common good,” EYC officials say in their March 4 statement.

Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.