- HERE'S A WIN/WIN STRATEGY FOR KENYAN CHURCH LEADERS -

Dear Church leaders, I would like to help you formulate a strategy that results in win/win for all Kenyans. You will be able to resolve the pre-referendum consensus deadlock (by eliminating the need for it) - while significantly increasing the likelihood of achieving your primary objectives.

========================
Benefits of the proposed strategy:
========================
1. Having a strategy formulated around your CORE objectives will reduce the risk of your resources running out or confusing the public on what you really want to achieve.

2. Enemies of Kenya will not be able to use the Church's stand to spread hate speech via pretext that it is from the church. You will outsmart the hatemongers.

3. Church will have demonstrated nationalistic leadership. Creating new options that build /enhance relationships. This will be a blow to the "win at all costs" mindset of some selfish and backward Kenyans.

4. Church will be seen as more progressive and well aligned to wishes of the Kenya citizens and the state.

5. Continued harmony between Christians and Muslims. Going for Win/Win - instead of Win/Lose or Lose / Lose.

==========================
Here are the suggested steps:
==========================
1. First review your objectives. What do you want to achieve? Please it is important to be very clear and specific. Examples:

a. Guaranteed right to life in Bill of Rights?

b. Removal of Khadhi courts clause? OR alternatively, Making the clause generic to provide for state funded, equal status, religious institutions?

c. Re-wording of the abortion clause to your satisfaction. You need to state your specific intent (what do you want exactly?) so that legal practitioners can draft appropriately.

2. Of the objectives above, which is MOST important? You should limit your objectives to only KEY ones.This calls for honest, unemotional and realistic analysis.

You want to commit adequate resources on your most important objectives. You want to have clear focus in order to minimize likelihood of diluting efforts or diluting the message to Kenyans. For example:

a. Guaranteeing right to life. This goal is achievable and, in my view, a worthy goal.

I take it you want to abolish death penalty and constitutionally ban extrajudicial police killings of unarmed suspects together with innocent bystanders?

I assume also that you want all murder cases to be above AG's powers to issue a "Nulle Prosequi" so that Justice is served uniformly irrespective of social status or race - e.g. Cholmondeley's first murder case, that was terminated by AG.. The Nulle Prosequi verdict, which many Kenyans regard as RACIST, resulted in a second killing. The AG set a killer loose and someone died because of it. If Cholmondeley had been in prison, his second victim would have been alive to this date.

b. Kadhi Courts: I take it you want an amicable resolution to this matter that does not needlessly antagonize our Muslim brothers/sisters.

Thus I propose, Instead of removing Kadhi courts (Win/Lose approach), consider amendments that introduce a more generalized wording of the clause such that it allows for state funded religious administrative institutions (not necessarily courts... whether muslims / christians or hindi etc). All the institutions shall have equal funding and status irrespective of their role/function.

The fact is, removing Kadhi courts from the constitution would be very difficult because Muslims can also easily muster their 1 million signatures to block such a move - Resulting in a deadlock that polarizes the country (Lose / Lose scenario). Furthermore Kenyan Christians have never had any issue with Kadhi courts over the last fourty years thus a lose/lose proposal will antagonize the flock causing divisions within the church itself.

Polarization will plant the seeds of fundamentalism/extremism and this will give enemies of Kenya a chance to destabilize the country violently.

Citizens don't benefit from instability. The innocent and vulnerable are hurt the most. Look at Somalia. The world simply gave up on them. Look at Israel and Palestine. Revenge/counter-revenge cycles... Same situation in Nigeria... Years of tensions and division... Will it ever end? How? When? Do we want something like that in Kenya? This is what your educated flock is concerned about. Only foreign enemies of Kenya will win if there is a Lose/Lose scenario.

When we take an honest look at the bigger scheme of things, the issue of whether or not to have Kadhi courts in the constitution becomes rather insignificant. What vision do we have for KENYA as a NATION? For EAST AFRICA (what if tensions spread to Tanzania for example)?

Shall our Church leaders be remembered as builders or destroyers? Patriots or self-serving tyrants? Please pray for God's wisdom when making your ultimate choice. Remember the essense of christianity LOVE. God is LOVE. Love thy Neighbor. Love God. Love your (real or perceived) enemies.

c. Abortion: I am not pro-abortion. But please let us be practical and 100% candid about this.

You know that no matter what happens to the constitution, abortions will continue ILLEGALLY. You also know that illegal abortions pose a very high risk of death to pregnant girls - typically desperate and scared little teenage girls who made mistakes and who falsely believe that their life is completely ruined because of pregnancy.

Illegal abortions have many other risks (e.g. HIV infection, destroying the girl's reproduction system.. i.e. barreness etc). Do we just want to make a point - or do we want to protect these young scared, innocent school-girls whose only "crime" is being born in a westernized society that constantly bombards them with immorality and "sex is good for you" messages?

So I ask you candidly... what do you realistically expect to achieve? Perhaps a better solution, in line with your current efforts or perspective of the law, would be a clause in the constitution to criminalize sex before marriage (i.e. address the root cause of abortion)? How about laws that separate unmarried males from unmarried females (with exception of blood relatives only)? Any male person seen alone with a woman who is not his wife can be arrested and fined (or caned if he can't pay). The parents/guardians of the unmarried couples would also be given a warning by the Government - and fined (or caned also) in case of multiple instances involving their children/wards. You can have a specially trained Morality Police to monitor society and enforce such laws. Government can censor all media and internet content to ensure conformance with morality laws. Then society will thus be more careful and there will be no more abortion problems... Your objective will have been achieved!

The challenge with such an approach though, is that it is can be easily abused by the ruling class to suppress freedom of expression, freedom of movement, gender equality and freedom of association... creating repressive regimes and/or dictatorships. Additionally, the concept of "acceptable moral threshold for behavior, words, visual images and manner of dressing" keeps changing with each generation - thus the church would have to decide which period to base its morality laws on - BC or AD? Which year? Why? ...and which culture to use as benchmark (Jewish or European or African or a mix? Why?) and whether the selected culture represents a spiritual viewpoint(God's Laws) or a human viewpoint (Man's Laws)... and how do you determine conclusively?.

Alternatively, if you prefer a "free", secular society, consider teaching the community that pregnancy out of wedlock is NOT the end of the world. Continue preaching abstinence before marriage but also encourage use of condoms for those who are not able to abstain. Make it safe for pregnant girls to keep their babies! Lobby for specialized health care laws for such vulnerable cases. Teach parents that they should not abandon or abuse their pregant girls (I think such backward behavior from parents should be criminalized). Boys who make girls pregnant can be supported and mentored on how to be good and resposnible fathers. They should not be pressured to drop out of school in order to start a family. Give them time to develop and mature - mentally.

Pregnant girls should not drop out of school! Church should lobby for alternate arrangements to be guaranteed in legal statutes - with adequate govenrment funding. The girls should simply continue in a special goverment funded institutions together with other girls with similar circumstances. In addition to preparing them for success in life, they can also be taught about responsible motherhood and childcare there. Many girls abort because of fear and trauma caused by SOCIAL STIGMATIZATION of premarital or teen pregnancy.

Church leaders, if you remove the STIGMA associated with pregnancy out of wedlock, and provide for state-guaranteed temporary support of the mother and child e.g. via Gov financed child-care assistance facilities / institutions, the problem of abortion will be significantly reduced - if not totally eliminated!

Abortion is an imported cultural problem. Due to colonial brainwash, Africans indiscriminately assimilated many backward cultural beliefs and practices from Europe- naively believing that everything western is modern or better. Furthermore missionaries did not distinguish between European Culture and bibilical practices - preferring instead, to mix the two. Whether this was done intentionally or not is debatable, but the fact remains that missionaries became an effective political tool used for transferring European culture to colonized societies. Check your history, indigenous Africans never had the problem of abortions.

Medical reasons: Married people very rarely want to have an abortion. Kids are the fruits of Marriage and blessings from God. Thus Married people who abort are FORCED by emergency circumstances where the mother is in mortal danger. Remember God's will can be manifested in many ways - sometimes in the form of choices which we must make. Thus the concept of Free will... Example:

- When you fall ill, would you be affecting God's will by taking medicine? Maybe the illness was punishment for your sins - thus you would be sinning by "escaping God's will"?

- Should we build dams / irrigate farms to combat drought or will we be interfering with God's ability to punish us with Drought?

- Is the world round or flat? Is Earth the centre of all universe?

Beloved Church leaders, where do we draw the line between reason, faith and madness?

Church leaders, when devising a trategy on this issue, your focus must be on how to smartly overcome obstacles in order to achieve your core objectives. Thus my proposal below...

=======================
Referendum strategy:
=======================
To increase your chances of achieving the core objectives, consider making a tactical fallback.

How? Instead of wasting resources campaigning for "NO" votes, use those same resources to campaign for "YES + signatures". Collect the one Million signatures NOW for the changes you want to make after the referendum.

In parallel, consult with your legal advisors on how to word the changes you propose.

As soon as the new constitution is promulgated, present your change petition and one Million signatures.

Will a tactical shift in position compromise Church leader's credibility? No. It wont. Because you will communiate openly to the citizens that you are doing it for the sake of 95% benefits that you don't want them to lose (which is true).

You will say that you still disagree with the contetious clauses - hence your two-phase approach: "YES + Signature". This makes perfect sense. Kenyan Christians will be relieved that you did not ask them to choose between religion and progress.

Other Gains:
Church should go ahead and capitalize on the publicity garnered so far. Keep Canon. Karanja in the media spotlight; form a political party based on Christian Ideology (nothing wrong with it) and field Mr. Karanja (plus any other politically inclined representatives) for candidature in 2012. This will give you numbers in Parliarment - helping you push future church-based agendas.

==============================
To conclude, how about a reality check?
==============================
The proposed constitution will, in actual fact - as I see it, be easier to change transparently than the current one because it empowers the people to bypass politicians.

Keep in mind, if the NO vote wins, you shall still have to convince politicians and other stakeholders e.g. Muslimsto make changes. Remember, politicians need votes in 2012.

Furthermore, if NO carries the day, your change proposals shall be diluted by a flood of hundreds of other change proposals. The 95% benefits, that kenyans hunger for, shall be be at risk of mutilation by corrupt elites. The subsequent endless debates will further decrease the likelihood of even having a new constitution.

If the NO vote wins, 2012 will find us polarized again and without credible institutions, and we will wonder what went wrong... how come we never learned from 2007/8?

Church leaders, by campaigning for "NO" votes, you set yourself up for failure and you also fail your congegation by denying them the 95% benefits they would have had.

Copyright 2010. Opinion... The Media is free to print/distribute this specific article - provided you give credit to Maishinski and include the url http://maishinski.blogspot.com.