MOMBASA JUNE 6, 2017(CISA) – Hundreds of women faithful from the Catholic Archdiocese of Mombasa held a peaceful procession on June 3 to campaign for peaceful General Elections.
The procession that was themed, “Peaceful and Credible Elections: Leaders of Integrity,” that was organized by the Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya (AOSK) was flagged off by Archbishop Martin Kivuva of the Catholic Archdiocese of Mombasa accompanied by Fr Gabriel Dolan of Haki Yetu, a Human Rights Organization based in Mombasa.
The faithful accompanied by some residents marched from the Holy Ghost Cathedral to the Star of the Sea Primary school.
According to Archbishop Kivuva, the walk was meant to encourage residents to promote peace and to ensure they are not used by politicians to create violence.
“The electorate should detest and refuse to be used by politicians. The politicians who inflict fear on people should be rejected by the electorate at the ballot box,” Archbishop Kivuva told CISA in a phone interview.
He called on all women to be ambassadors of peace during the political campaigns that begun on May 28.
Archbishop Kivuva further called on the electorate to, “Refuse to be zoned such as Jubilee or NASA zones (the two main political alliances in Kenya) and instead identify leaders who want to lead us irrespective of their parties because many a time political parties have let us down.”
“Vote on individuals with integrity. Those you know their past and present. If they were thugs they will always be thugs. Let’s identify and elect good leaders to serve us,” said Archbishop Kivuva who is also the Vice Chairman of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (CJPC).
He urged the media to be objective more so during the electioneering period in order to unite the country during and after the August elections.
“The media must be objective. You should not taint and accept to be used by anyone. Be truthful and practice unbiased reporting during the electioneering period. We have already seen a lot of propaganda coming from the media and this is not the way to go,” he said.
