Cardinal Convenes Ecumenical Peace Meeting After Poll Chaos

John Cardinal Njue

Function: Archbishop of Nairobi

Title:

Birthdate: Jan 1, 2000	Country: Kenya

Elevated: Nov 24, 2007	More information:

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Cardinal Convenes Ecumenical Peace Meeting After Poll Chaos
Dec 19, 2007
The Catholic Church will not influence its faithful to vote for certain candidates or parties, but will only educate them on the kind of leaders they should elect, the chairman of the bishops' conference said.

Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi, 18 December 2007) John Cardinal Njue said next week's poll will determine the country's destiny for the next five years and urged Kenyans to vote wisely and avoid being enticed with money, the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation reported.

The cardinal appealed to all parliamentary and civic candidates throughout the country to avoid violence and hate speech during their campaigns. He was speaking at a peace meeting he convened Tuesday for parliamentary and civic aspirants in Mathira Constituency in central Kenya.

The meeting, also attended by pastors from among other churches, follows the recent killing of a man in campaign-related violence.

During the meeting, attended by three Mathira Parliamentary aspirants, Nderitu Gachagua, Ephraim Maina and Peter Kuguru, Cardinal Njue condemned the violence.

The peace meeting, however, turned acrimonious with the parliamentary aspirants absolving themselves from acts of violence while pointing accusing fingers at their opponents. Nderitu Gachagua who is the immediate former MP accused his political rivals of attacking his supporters during a campaign rally.

He also accused the police of failure to arrest the suspects, claiming that they were known to the residents. He said he would not protect any of his campaigners who are caught in acts of violence.

Maina, who is in the parliamentary race for the first time, accused his political rivals of being dishonest, alleging that some of them are known to instigate violence.

Peter Kuguru thanked the church for convening the peace meeting saying all church leaders have the responsibility to lead the church but accused some church leaders of supporting particular aspirants and parties.

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