Kenya Catholic bishops’ efforts to ensure peaceful, free and credible elections are bearing fruit, with the campaigns for the 9 August polls remaining largely peaceful.
The campaigns entered the home stretch this week, with the bishops continuing to issue their weekly statements known as the Bishops’ Voice. In the election period pastoral statements the bishops have been addressing key concerns including peace, unity, choice of leaders, rising cost of living and hate speech.
“We need to jealously guard our peace now, during and after the elections are announced. We have proven once more we can be true custodians of our country,” said Archbishop Martin Kivuva Musonde, the chairman of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops in the 22 July Bishop’s Voice.
In the August polls, Kenyans will be electing a president and a deputy, 337 National Assembly members and 67 of the Senate, 47 County Governors and over 2000 Members of County Assemblies. The key campaign issues have included affordable healthcare, youth employment, free education, better economy and the rising cost of living, among others.
Of the four presidential candidates, Raila Amollo Odinga and William Ruto are the frontrunners. Odinga, a 77 years old former Prime Minister and a long serving opposition figure is running under the Azimio la Umoja (The Promise of Unity) Alliance while 55-year-old William Samoei Ruto, the current Vice President is leading the Kenya Kwanza ( Kenya first) alliance.
In a June statement, the bishops cautioned against those leaders, “who propose to destroy life in its initial stages in the mother’s womb through abortion, those who have an agenda of liberalisation of sexual behaviour including pornography, and those proposing the destruction of our youth through liberalisation of drug use.”
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