Is Kenya a secular or religious State?

When it comes to Kadhi’s courts, who is fooling whom?

Is Kenya a secular state? If yes, why are we complicating matters debating these courts?

We want a new constitution because what we have is not a product of Kenyans. All of us should be equal before God and in the proposed constitution.

Don’t lawyers sitting in the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) and the Committee of Experts (CoE) understand the meaning of a secular State?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, secular means: "...pertaining to the present world, or to things not spiritual or sacred...."

According to Wikipedia, a secular State is a concept of secularism, whereby a state or country purports to be officially neutral in matters of religion, supporting neither religion nor irreligion.

Why should Kenyans living in a secular State pay taxes to run affairs of a court system whose mandate is limited to one religion?

Do not fool us. We are either a secular or a religious state. If we are not a religious State, then leave the Kadhi’s courts out of the new constitution.

{Henry Mogaka, Mombasa}

The National Council of Churches of Kenya and other church leaders have threatened to mobilise their followers to vote against the draft constitution if Kadhi’s courts are retained in the new law.

These leaders have spread propaganda and half-truths that warn of sharia law being entrenched in the constitution. It is sad that those we bank on to provide direction are sowing discord that could cost us a new constitution.

Sharia law has not been sneaked into the draft law either by the CoE or the PSC. Kadhi’s courts have been part of the constitution for the last 46 years. Why scrap them today?

These courts deal with Muslims on matters relating to marriage, divorce and inheritance from an Islamic perspective. For instance, a Muslim charged with a criminal offense has always been charged and convicted in our regular courts of law without regard to their faith.

The clamour for constitutional reforms two decades ago was inspired by outrage over an imperial presidency, corrupt Judiciary, oppressive Provincial Administration and a weak Legislature.

Most Kenyans did not know that Kadhi’s courts existed since they were not a contentious issue.

Let Christian tolerate other faiths so we can endorse the proposed draft law.

{Oscar Okwaro, Funyula}