Nairobi — The Catholic Church and opposition parties yesterday threw their weight behind the draft constitution under discussion at Bomas of Kenya.

At the same time, MPs will today hold a crisis meeting to discuss the hostility directed at some of them at Bomas. House Speaker Francis ole Kaparo called the MPs' Kamukunji after 25 MPs petitioned him.

Yesterday, the Catholic Church's top decision-making organ - the Kenya Episcopal Conference - said it would only support the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission draft as the 'legal and legitimate' document.

The chairman, Bishop Cornelius Korir, also said the recent draft by the Ufungamano group was not part of the views of the Catholic church, which has 8 million members country-wide.

Archbishop Ndingi Mwana a' Nzeki of the church's Nairobi diocese, was among the 12 church leaders from different denominations who attended the launch and jointly addressed a news conference.

The Catholic church is not a member of the National Council of the Churches of Kenya (NCCK), under whose aegis the Ufungamano draft was released.

NCCK General Secretary Reverend Mutava Musyimi presided over the launch of the draft at Ufungamano House.

Bishop Korir who is from the Eldoret diocese, clarified that any views from the Ufungamano Initiative should not be seen as part of the Catholics stand.

"We have delegates at Bomas and for us the church we will never support any other (outside) group out to derail the review process.

However, he said the church is not opposed to anybody presenting his or her views to the Bomas conference.

"The church sent delegates to the National Constitutional Conference at Bomas of Kenya and they are the ones representing us. We expect them to support the legal (CKRC) document tabled at Bomas," said Korir.

He also said that the Catholic faithful will not support any demonstrations in support of the Ufungamano draft constitution as proposed by the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) moderator Rev David Githii on Wednesday.

He added that the church was keenly watching and waiting a constitution when the talks at Bomas are concluded.

Korir said such moves will only worsen the situation and urged other religious groups to "sober up" and support the Bomas talks.

And five bishops from different churches in Nyanza Province yesterday asked Kenyans to ignore the Ufungamano initiative, adds Alfred Oduor.

They dismissed the clergy who launched the Ufungamano draft as a group of self-seekers being used by powerful politicians to scuttle the review process.

Bishop Ogonyo Ngede (Power Of Jesus around the World Church), Bishop Mathews Ajuoga (Church Of Christ in Africa), Joel Otuoma (New Covenant Pentecostal Church) and Raphael Ojula (Joy International Fellowship church) said they support Bomas III talks.

Speaking as inter-denominational bishops from Nyanza, they said Ufungamano has no mandate to speak on behalf of religious groups in Kenya.

Ngede insisted that the Ufungamano initiative is a scheme by powerful individuals in government to scuttle the constitutional review process.

He said it was hypocritical for the bishops to break away from Bomas talks yet they gave their views when the commission toured the country.

He said the CKRC was the only legitimate body mandated to provide Kenya with a new constitution.