Press Statement by Lower Eastern Regional Conference

Serve People to Serve God

Press Statement

Preamble
The Regional Conference of the NCCK Lower Eastern Region is meeting here at ABC Bomani, Machakos, from 11th to 13th June 2018 under the theme Integrating Faith in Life (Matthew 23: 23). The Regional Conference is the supreme governance organ in the region and meets once every three years. More than 100 delegates from the NCCK member churches and organisations in Machakos, Makueni, Kitui and Kajiado counties are participating. During our deliberations, we considered the word of God recorded in Matthew 25: 31 – 46, with specific focus on verses 37 – 40:

Then righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’.

We recognize that the expectation God has over all of us is that we care for one another, for in this way we are actually serving Him. With this in mind, we wish to share the following message:

1. Focus on Meeting the Real Needs
This Regional Conference appreciates that the agreement between His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Hon Raila Amolo Odinga to work for unity has enabled the nation to recover from the tumultuous events surrounding the 2017 General Elections.

We now call upon all the elected and appointed officials at both national and county levels to focus on satisfying the needs of the people they are in office to serve. The time for campaigning and engaging in politics of popularity is over. It is time to implement the existing plans and policy papers, as well as the promises you made during the elections. In this, we especially wish to highlight the following issues that require urgent attention in our region:

(a) Food Insecurity
The residents of the four counties in our region, that is, Machakos, Makueni, Kitui and Kajiado, continue to live under a traumatizing level of food insecurity. There can be no real development if the people are hungry. It is important that we take the advice given in Proverbs 24: 27 –

Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.

Towards this, we call upon the Governors in our counties to prioritize improvement of agriculture among our communities. Core consideration should be put on:

One, water harvesting to safeguard against the negative effects of cyclical droughts and heavy rains. The harvested water can then be used for domestic and irrigation purposes. True leaders in our counties are those who will impart on our people skills and technologies on water harvesting.

Two, adoption of conservation agriculture technologies such as zai pits and minimum tillage. This will radically increase the harvests and yields from our farms.

Three, promotion of afforestation in our counties so as to counter the negative impact of climate change. We especially urge schools and churches to engage in frequent tree planting activities.

(b) Infrastructural Development
This Regional Conference notes that even before the devastation brought by the ongoing rains, transport and public service infrastructure in our counties was pathetic. We call upon our county governments to prioritize development of all weather roads, electricity transmission and water piping to all locations so as to better the lives of our people.

2. Economically Empower Yourself
This Regional Conference calls upon all the residents of our region, and Kenyans in general, to endeavor to acquire their own financial and material wealth, just as the Bible teaches us in 1 Thessalonians 4: 11 – 12
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

We can no longer continue to depend on politicians to improve our lives even if their promises sound very good. We recommend that we each consider:

(a) Engaging in smart agriculture so as to maximize on agricultural produce
(b) Establishing producer groups and use them to buy farm inputs in bulk so as to get cheaper prices
(c) Forming producer groups and use them to market farm produce so as to get higher profits
(d) Establishing small scale value addition processing units so as to maximize income from the local produce
(e) Engaging agricultural extension officers to identify the best crops and animals to rear in specific areas

Let us take control of our lives and livelihoods.

3. Machakos County Leadership
This Regional Conference continues to observe the ongoing developments touching on the election of the Governor for Machakos County. We appreciate that the concerned parties are following the process provided for in the Constitution of Kenya, and call upon all the residents of the County to continue maintaining calmness as we allow the law to take its course. Our main role is to pray that God uses the laws in place to provide the county a Governor of His choice.

4. Sexual Assaults
This Regional Conference has noted with concern the increase in number of cases of sexual assault and rape in parts of our region. We therefore call upon all security agencies to intensify efforts to curb these cases. Also to be dealt with are the instances of early marriages.

Alongside this, we urge the county governments to put key focus on addressing the challenge of unemployment among the youth. This will especially help resolve the current rise in cases of alcohol and substance abuse.

5. Corruption
This Regional Conference recognizes that corruption is a cancer that is progressively killing our nation. We therefore embrace and reiterate the position taken by the NCCK Executive Committee which recommended that:
(a) Corruption is declared a national disaster so as to intensify action and campaign against it
(b) Past corruption offenders are offered an amnesty from prosecution for one year if they return what they stole and also name those who they partnered with in the stealing
(c) Change the punishment for corruption to life imprisonment
(d) Ruthlessly enforce asset recovery to take back what any person has acquired through corruption
(e) Reform the anti corruption agencies so that they are designed to actually be effective against corruption

It is our prayer that as a country we will move away from handling anti corruption processes as mere public relations exercises, and actually eradicate the cancer.

6. New Leadership Team
This Regional Conference is honoured to announce that as provided for in the NCCK Constitution, new leadership teams have been elected in our counties and region. We wish to inform our member churches and organisations that the following are the chairpersons of NCCK County Coordinating Committees:

County Chairperson
Makueni Bishop Francis Matui
Kajiado Bishop Gadiel Lenini
Kitui Venerable Titus Wambua
Machakos Canon Dr Edward Nzinga

This Regional Conference elected the following to the Regional Committee:

Name Position
Chairman Rt Rev Joseph Mutungi
Vice Chairperson Captain Paul Kioko
Honorary Treasurer Pastor Mary Mwaura
Women Representative Lay Leader Esther Mwendwa
Youth Representative David Kavati
Persons with Disabilities Representative Elder Alex Ole Monyere

Conclusion
We conclude by thanking God for the grace He has continued to bestow on Kenya. Let us all continue sharing the same grace with the people around us, so that in meeting their needs, we also serve God just as the Bible teaches us. It is our prayer that God will enable all of us to live out our faith and in that way manifest a fulfillment of the words we pray through our National Anthem:
O God of all Creation, bless this our land and nation
Justice be our shield and defender
May we dwell in unity, peace and liberty
Plenty be found within our borders

Signed on this 13th day of June 2018 at ABC Bomani, Machakos.

Rt Rev Joseph Mutungi
Regional Chairman, NCCK Lower Eastern Region