Nairobi, Kenya
Religious tensions have started to build up over a proposal to entrench the authority of Islamic courts in Kenya, ahead of a crucial national conference to discuss a new draft constitution next week.
The draft constitution, completed last year by a group of experts and which will be adopted in June this year, has proposed several changes to the current constitution. These include entrenching the already existing Islamic (Khadhi) courts - which preside over Islamic family and personal issues - in the constitution.
Churches and Christian organisations have opposed the proposal, arguing that it would give Islam undue supremacy over other religions in the country. The National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) umbrella body, on Monday called for deleting all religious issues from the constitution, and placing them under specific parliamentary legislation.
NCCK secretary general Mutava Musyimi said Kenya, as a secular state, already had provisions guaranteeing freedom of religion in the current constitution, and therefore it was not necessary to add provisions that seemed to favour one religion.
"The sections are discriminative in nature as they seek to elevate Islamic religious courts, which serve one religious sector," Musyimi told journalists in Nairobi.
Muslims, who make up about 20 percent of Kenya's population, however argue that their rights would not be guaranteed under parliamentary majority rules.
Hamisi Juma, a director of Muslim for Human Rights (MUHURI), a non-governmental organisation, told IRIN that the decision by churches to oppose the proposal on Khadhi courts had been influenced by "foreign" church groups who wanted to reduce the strength of Islam in the country.
"We have to understand what the constitution is all about. It is about protecting the rights of the minority," Juma said. "Our understanding of the whole thing is that there is a hidden agenda to break the influence of Islam in this country. There is a lot of evidence to show that these churches are being pushed from outside."