Press Statement by the Executive Committee Meeting 7th Dec 2018

excom 2 NCCK General Secretary Rev Canon Peter Karanja is flanked by Council Chairman Archbishop Dr. Timothy Ndambuki (To his left) and members of the Executive Committee during a media briefing at Jumuia Conference and Country Home Limuru.

RESTORE JUSTICE
PASTORAL LETTER

Proverbs 29: 14
If a king judges the poor with fairness, his throne will always be secure.

A. Preamble
We the Executive Committee of the National Council of Churches of Kenya have met here at Jumuia Conference and Country Home, Limuru, for the last two days to transact statutory business and reflect on matters of national concern. Having meditated on the challenges that continue to bedevil our country in light of the Word of God, we wish to share this Pastoral Letter with all the people of Kenya.

B. Centrality of Justice
In His wisdom, God has given us the secret to national prosperity and peace. We find it in Deuteronomy 16: 20, which reads: “Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you”. This is in line with the words we constantly sing in our National Anthem, “Justice be our shield and defender”.
Dear Brothers and Sisters, when a nation begins to fall apart, it is always because the leaders and citizens of that nation disregard justice. Students of history will attest to this.
We bring this message to warn that Kenya is faltering because of neglecting justice, just as we have been warned in Proverbs 29: 4 – “By justice a king gives a country stability, but one who is greedy for bribes tears it down”.

C. The Injustice of Corruption
There is no greater evil a leader of the people at any level can commit than engaging in corruption, which is a fruit of love of money and uncontrolled greed, and which the Bible equates to idolatry in Colossians 3: 5 – “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry”.
Dear Brothers and Sisters, the root cause of the problems Kenya is going through is corruption, which has robbed us of justice. So pervasive is corruption in our nation that officials of the National Treasury have in the past told us that a third of the national budget is lost through corruption, meaning that Kenyans are likely to lose up to KShs 700 billion this year alone. This would mean that around KShs 2 billion is stolen from Kenyans every day! If such resources were deployed to deliver services to Kenyans, the quality and standard of their lives would reflect dignity and meaning.
The nation cannot stand under the weight of this level of corruption and injustice!
We therefore urge you, Brothers and Sisters, to refuse to give bribes even when it is causes you inconveniences and trust the God of justice to reward your efforts and bless you in your endeavours.
And to all corrupt government officials, we remind you of the account of a man called Achan in the Bible who stole some gold and carpets from the town of Jericho, and it caused him and his family to be stoned to death. Even if you escape the arm of the law after your theft and pilferage of public resources, the curse of God will eventually fall on you and your future generations, just as it is recorded in Exodus 34: 6 – 7: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”
Brothers and Sisters, we remind you that in the past, this Executive Committee has called for declaration of corruption as a national disaster, and provision of an amnesty from prosecution of those who own up to corruption and pay back what they stole.
Today, we reiterate the same and urge that the anti corruption laws be upgraded to redefine corruption by public officers as treason against the Constitution and the people of Kenya, and sabotage against the government. The attendant punishment for treason should be applicable to this crime. The window dressing, theatrics and rhetoric against corruption must give way to a decisive, irreversible and final national resolve to put it behind our national life.

D. Other Manifestations of Injustice in the Country
Dear Brothers and Sisters, there are other manifestations of injustice which have destroyed the livelihoods of ordinary Kenyans, which include:
(i) The injustice against farmers who have been progressively impoverished through deliberate overpricing of farm inputs coupled with insidious downpricing of their produce by cartels. The plight of fishing communities, sugarcane farmers, cotton farmers, coffee farmers, tea farmers, and now maize farmers is a grievous injustice that must come to an end.
We encourage farmers to form producer groups and use them to create value chains outside the shackles of corruption cartels and abusive public service bureaucracies which have demonstrated poor stewardship of national interests.
(ii) The injustice of excessive and oppressive taxation of Kenyans who have been reduced to serfdom. Most of the income a Kenyan generates goes to the government in form of income tax, value added tax, fuel tax, road levies, housing tax, and all the other levies that have made life for the people miserable. We urge the Ministry of Finance to appreciate that Kenyan taxation regime is headed to the proverbial scenario of “killing the goose that lays the golden egg”.
(iii) The injustice of excessive and unexplained borrowing that has increased the country’s debt from KShs 1.8 trillion in 2013 to KShs 5.04 trillion in 2018. Kenyans for generations to come have their incomes committed to repaying debts they don’t understand. We challenge the government to make public the country’s debt register to show who is owed how much and what was done with the money, as well as the terms of those loans. In the meantime, the government must rethink the wisdom and sustainability of further borrowing for infrastructural development or recurrent expenditure.
(iv) The injustice of deliberate sabotage of industrialization of Kenya by opening the borders to all manners of substandard and counterfeit products. It is unjust that the myriad of state agencies tasked with border and quality controls have reduced our country to a dumping site for junk from China. How can Kenya ever create dignified jobs if all household expenditures go to sustain jobs for the Chinese and other foreign nationals while there are no incentives for promotion and commercialization of our innovations and intellectual properties?
We recommend that the government radically reduces duty charged on imported farm and industrial inputs and increase duty on imported finished products.
(v) The injustice of Kenyans living in a perpetual state of fear of being attacked by criminals who seem to have a template of beating the justice system. The President and relevant organs have a duty to do everything in their power to rid the Police Service of corruption and deliver true benefit from our massive investment in the security infrastructure.
(vi) The injustice of exposing our education and healthcare commodity regimes to foreign lobby and commercial interests which undermine the long term interests of our children and youth. The latest instance has been the widely publicised stories about rampant teenage pregnancies. We wish to state here that the manner in which the statistics are being peddled is suspect, knowing that the objective is to justify sexualisation of school going children with unregulated distribution of contraceptives and condoms to provide market for the manufacturers of the products. We are chagrined that the so-called Comprehensive Sex Education has been introduced in hundreds of schools around the country without consent from parents or official government policy.
We reject this move in total, and remind all that the solution to the teenage pregnancies is more responsible parenting, inculcation of life skills in the young ones, and strict enforcement of the law: Jail the man who made the minor pregnant, and confiscate his property to provide for the child and its mother. Further, the stakeholders in the Education sector need to finalize discussions around Chaplaincy and Pastoral Programmes of Instruction in educational institutions to facilitate inculcation of morals in the learners.
(vii) The injustice of exclusion of the vulnerable members of the society, especially the youth, women and persons with disabilities, from governance and decision making processes. Whereas the Constitution provides for their inclusion, a strategic policy is needed to build their capacities and skills to ensure that their involvement is not mere tokenism but a competent harnessing of their stakeholder interests.
(viii) The injustice of selfish leaders which has been exemplified by the repeated attempts by Members of Parliament to insensitively increase their remuneration. We urge that the Constitution provisions on the Salaries and Remuneration Commission be revised to expressly provide that the body has sole power to set salaries and allowances of all public servants, whether elected or appointed. The Constitution should also state that the Salaries and Remuneration Commission has the power to revise salaries downwards if the economic situation in the country necessitates it.
Similar insensitivity has been witnessed in the public transport sector, where Kenyans continue to suffer greatly. Over the years, the different interventions have not worked because they are business-oriented, not service-oriented. We urge the relevant government agencies to spearhead widescale stakeholder consultations to develop viable solutions so as stop the bureaucratic kneejerk reactions and directives. Convenience, security and justice for travellers must be the guiding principle.

E. Amendment of the Constitution of Kenya 2010
Dear Brothers and Sisters, we have noted with appreciation the ongoing discussions on whether there is need for amendment of the Constitution of Kenya 2010. This Executive Committee has spoken to this issue in the past. We encourage Kenyans to engage in this discourse conscientiously and robustly so as to make your preferences known. Do not allow injustice to be built into the Constitution by legislating self-serving political interests of the current crop of politicians. The Constitution must provide a transgenerational framework for national good and interests founded on justice.
Further to this, we encourage you to participate in national and local level dialogue forums being presided over by the Dialogue Reference Group, the Building Bridges Initiative, and any other groups in order to nurture an authentic national consensus around the issues of national concern.

F. Conclusion
Dear Brothers and Sisters, we conclude by calling to mind the message of God in Isaiah 1: 15 – 18:
“… wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord”
Let us all embrace justice as the guiding principal of our lives, and in that way contribute to the restoration of justice in our nation. If we do not, the nation will be destroyed.
As we enter the Christmas season, we take this moment to wish all Kenyans and our friends a blessed Christmas and God-filled New Year 2019.

May God bless us with a restoration of justice.

Signed on this 7th day of December 2018 at Jumuia Conference and Country Home, Limuru.

Archbishop Timothy Ndambuki
Chairperson

Rev Canon Peter Karanja
General Secretary