It is sinful for Church to reject draft

By KIPKOECH TANUI

The Catholic Church, African Inland Church and the wieldy National Council of Churches of Kenya are projecting themselves as absolute moralists and want to kill the Proposed constitution.

They are opposed to abortion even if it is on the circumstances stipulated by the Proposed constitution — "when in the opinion of a trained medical personnel, there is need for emergency treatment, or the life and or health of the mother is in danger, or if permitted by any other written law.’’ Moral absolutism is the ethical view that some actions are enormously right or wrong no matter the intention.

This holier-than-thou attitude sees all forms of lies, even if they are meant to save life, as sinful. If my daughter lies to assassins to save my life while I hide under the bed she would, in this reasoning, be a sinner! If a poor and foolish pregnant girl who has pushed needles into her uterus in a bid to puncture her water bag and expel the foetus is brought to a hospital, the doctor should not complete the process.

This kind of absolute morality is blind to the world we live in; where, for example, in parts of North Eastern men ‘seal’ up the birth carnal of their wives, to enforce chastity as they pursue nomadism.

A doctor says to enforce this crude chastity, they use a matchstick to determine the width of the gap to be left for menstruation and urination. The rest of the external genital is scraped red, sewn up and left to heal.

When they come back they slice it open. Pregnancies almost always begin with complications, and in delivery, there are cases where women cannot control urine. The complications often lead to unintended abortions and other medical complications.

I have no problem with the clergymen’s sense of purity, which not only blinds them to the society they live in but also sees them try to impose their standards on others, and to suffocate common sense. We have not even talked about common talk one of them is known to be a heavy smoker and the blackened puckered lips say so.

Absolute moralist

Before he died, I sat with former Police Commissioner Philip Kilonzo and a bulky Kenyan who he kept referring to him as ‘Father’ in his bar in Matuu. At first I thought the title was a nickname. I later learnt he was a Catholic priest, when he asked me if I was not drinking beer because my mother warned me never to do so. Today, I wonder if he could be among the ‘absolute moralists’ who will ask their parishioners to vote ‘No’ because of conditional abortion and Kadhi’s courts’ clauses.

That is why I cannot rule out claims against child abuse rocking the Vatican as well as the weird ones by family planning personnel they are often consulted by disguised individuals.

This is not to abuse the Church but to jolt the clerics to the reality of life. Some of them are known to have secret families and even harems. But to be fair, this is not what the Church teaches or stands for. The lost sheep are but a minority. However, they help bring to question the cleric’s pretence to Jesus’ altar of absolute moralism.

I, however, appreciate their argument we should give our teenage girls and poor mothers economic empowerment, better education, and higher standard of medical care. But will this happen in our lifetime?

The Church should be dynamic, flexible and realistic. This is personal and pitiful. I know one of these clergymen recently marshalled his supporters to the airport to receive his son studying abroad. When the young man landed he was dressed like a ‘girl’. He apparently went ‘gay’ and is some weird man’s ‘girlfriend’.

The Church surely knows the youth are drifting away from its orbit, because it does not accommodate their interests; appreciate the turbulence of their time, and the risks around. Take abstinence and the Catholic’s condom debate; it simply is out of reality. Isn’t it time the Church climbed down from its make-believe high moral pedestal? It does not mean it should compromise its standards, but neither should it exaggerate them, or force the rest of us into its fold.

Yesterday, I listened to Mr Richard Kalembe Ndile alias Tip Tip on a FM radio station make views that saw me revise my old opinion of him as a cantankerous politician with a nuisance value. He asked if Kadhi’s courts sanction murder, theft and corruption. Of course no! He asked if Christians who have cases against Muslims could sue them in regular courts, and of course yes.

Never forgive

I add, don’t we have Muslims taking Muslims to our courts? Don’t we also have Muslim judges and magistrates in our High Courts? Yes, if Muslims were not a minority, and if Kadhi’s courts were not part of a post-colonial deal between the Sultan of Zanzibar and Jomo Kenyatta, I would say away with them.

Finally, tell these clerics some of us consider it utterly sinful to throw away the Proposed Constitution just because of two clauses and will never forgive them.

The writer is The Standard’s Managing Editor, Daily Editions.

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