NAIROBI, SEPTEMBER 11, 2018 (CISA) – Religious leaders in Kenya today convened at Ufungamano House to launch the first National Dialogue Conference (NDC), in what is intended to be a series to discuss burning issues Kenyan citizens are facing since the 2017 General Elections.
The conference that will run September 11 – 13 was convened by the Dialogue Reference Group (a religious leaders driven dialogue platform) brought together religious leaders, the civil society organizations, trade unions, women, youth and disability constituencies, and representatives of the private sector.
“The religious leaders and membership of the DRG have pondered on the past that has continued to haunt us as a country and has come to a consensus that for our country to move forward, we need a structured and genuine dialogue with our past and current issues that might break our unity, threaten peace and security and worse obstruct us from realizing our full potential,” said Rev. Martin Kivuva, Chairperson of the Dialogue Reference Group and Vice Chair KCCB-Catholic Justice and Peace Commission in his message to the conference.
“The Framework for National Dialogue provides a platform to engage multiple stakeholders on the future of Kenya,” he said.
The primary concerns of the conference include issues that divide the country such as the nature of its politics, and the economy.
“We recognize that some progress has been made in implementing the building bridges initiative by H.E President Uhuru Kenyatta and Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga. But we must agree that the momentum has slowed. The initiative itself brought hope to the people of Kenya, who are still hopeful that it will address issues that divide us as a people and as a country,” said Rev. Martin Kivuva.
“As the people of Kenya, we should be concerned about our country, about the issues that tend to divide us, about the nature of our politics, about our economy and go further to ask ourselves whether all that we do is for the common good, for majority suffering Kenyans. We need to give dialogue a chance, so that as a country, we can engage in processes which offer us concrete solutions to such problems. We know our problems, we know where they originate from, and we also know the solutions,” the archbishop said.
