CHURCH LEADERS CONFRONT KENYA’S VIOLENCE

Kenya’s Christian leaders have spoken of continuing intimidation and the trauma of the country’s post-election violence that has caused many to be living in fear. Shem Okello, general secretary of the Baptist Convention of Kenya, said hundreds of people are still sheltering in police stations. Spurgeons Child Care Kenya reported that 14 of its mostly AIDS orphans had seen their homes torched. ‘Gangs of angry young people are threatening to burn the school’ where Spurgeons is caring for them, it said. While the Opposition Democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga is calling for the President to step down, both the Archbishop of Kenya and the Kenyan-born general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Revd Samuel Kobia, have called for an urgent recount and investigation of the voting dispute. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has also been meeting with both political parties in church-backed moves to resolve the crisis.

Sources: Baptist Times (10/1); Church Times (11/1); The Times (7/1)