Clerics appeal for calm ahead of by-election

By DANIEL PSIRMOI       

BUNGOMA: Clergymen in Bungoma County have appealed to politicians vying for the senatorial seat in the forthcoming by-election slated for December 19 to conduct their campaigns peacefully.

Addressing a press conference on Monday in Bungoma town, the clerics, under the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) Bungoma County chapter, said the region had faced numerous challenges in the past relating to insecurity.

They maintained it will be important that the politicians and their supporters conduct their campaigns, which begin officially next week, in a peaceful manner.

“We are asking the candidates for the Bungoma senatorial seat to exercise maximum caution as they go about wooing residents to vote for them. It will also be important that they rein in their supporters, as some of them have been known to indulge in acts of hooliganism,” said the statement read by Bungoma Diocese Anglican Church of Kenya Bishop George Mechumo, who is also county NCCK chairman.

Political class

The clerics appealed to the youth in the county not to accept to be misused by the political class to cause chaos in the campaign.

They noted that in as much as the western Kenya region had been sidelined in the recent plum government job appointments, the fact should not be used as a campaign tool in the by-election as it was bound to divide residents.

“As a church we are aware of the concerns that the region has been snubbed in government appointments, but this should not be used by some candidates to ride to power. However, we as a church will be misleading members of the public if we say the solution lies in the region declining to work with or supporting the government, said Mechumo.

“Our stand therefore is that we must accept Uhuru Kenyatta as the Head of State who has been ordained by God to lead the nation. We must support his government as we give him ample time to lay down the structures to lead the country,” said Mechumo who was flanked by Bishop Julius Mecheusi, chairman of Bungoma County Pastors’ Fellowship Forum, among others.