Tony Kago
5 May 2001
A bid by a group of church leaders to paralyse the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission flopped yesterday.
A High Court judge refused to grant them temporary orders halting the Commission's work.
Mr Justice Kassanga Mulwa also refused to give the group leave to sue the Commission until they have served notice on the Commission and its chairman, Prof Yash Pal Ghai.
Instead, he adjourned the case to Tuesday when both parties will be in court.
The judge said he had considered the practical implications of giving orders with only one side present, halting the operations of the commission and barring Prof Ghai from chairing it.
"The matters of the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission are matters of national interest", he said, adding that justice demanded the commission and its chairman be given a chance to be heard.
The church leaders' lawyer, Mr Assa Nyakundi, had asked the judge to stop the commission's work until the suit was heard, arguing more harm would be done if the operations were not halted.
The 11 clerics, under the banner of the United Christian Churches of Kenya, lodged an application seeking to block Prof Ghai from chairing the Commission.
They argue he is unqualified as he has never been a judge and is not qualified to be one, and that he has not been a law teacher in any of Kenya's universities in the past 15 years.
In the suit, the officials, who claimed they represented more than 12 million members drawn from more than 500 Christian denominations, also want their nominees included in the Commission.
They said the Commission had been behaving in excess of its jurisdiction and discriminatively.
They said Prof Ghai refused to take an oath and entered into negotiations with people meeting at Ufungamano Hall.
Later, a Bill allowing the inclusion of nominees from Ufungamano was drafted and presented to Parliament.
They argued Prof Ghai and the Commission declined to hear their views "on the pretext" that the Ufungamano group represented them.
The officials, who represent Evangelical, Pentecostal, Independent and Indigenous churches, are led by Archbishop Samson Gaitho of the African Independent Pentecostal Church of Africa.
Others are Bishop Silas Yego, Bishop Gerry Kibarabara, Dr A.K. Akidiva, Bishop Joseph Ogutu and the Rev Elkana Salamba, the Rev Stephen Mburu, Bishop J. Wanjala, Bishop J. Nyatuka, the Rev Patrick Gitau and the Rev William Abuka.
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