KILLER BLAST: An explosion cuts through demonstrators at Kenya's Uhuru Park in Nairobi on Sunday. There were two blasts during the political rally at which church leaders and politicians spoke against a proposed new constitution. Six people were killed and 24 injured Picture: REUTERS
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki convened an emergency meeting of the country's security chiefs yesterday following blasts that killed six people during a political rally against a draft constitution that would recognize Islamic courts.
Obama, Kenya's native son, strongly supports the change to Kenya's constitution.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga said the attack was an "isolated case." But the National Council of Churches blamed the attack on the government and supporters of the draft constitution.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden urged Kenyans to embrace constitutional reform during a speech here last week. But prominent politicians and Kenya's church leaders want the draft defeated because of allowances for abortion and Islamic courts that deal with family matters, issues opposed by conservative U.S. groups.(here)
During the 2008 presidential elections, I reported extensively on Obama's disturbing ties to the violent pro-sharia agitator Raila Odinga. He campaigned for him and is alleged to have supported him financially.
Islamic governments have targeted Kenya as a key element in the spread of Islam in Horn of Africa and ultimately the world. The Kenyan Diaspora including Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Hussein Obama has also played a part. The fall of Kenya into Islamist control would be devastating to anti-terrorist activities in the Horn of Africa, not to mention the potential for expansion of a caliphate. One has to ask, how fast will Kenya go Islamic and apply Shariah law? (February 2008)
From my January 11 post: Obama backed sharia advocate Odinga against American ally Kenya President Mwai Kibaki. He was unequivocal in his support, going so far as bragging to his shills and sycophants in the media (TIME Magazine's Joe Klein here),
"Obama has had near-daily conversations with the U.S. Ambassador in Kenya or with opposition leader Raila Odinga.
More on Odinga and Obama's phone conversations here.
Obama's bias for Odinga was so blatant that a Kenya
government spokesman denounced Obama during his visit as Raila's
"stooge."
Odinga signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Muslim community of Kenya. Odinga and the Muslims document here (at Atlas in January 2008)
As I predicted in 2008, Obama is behind a constitutional change in Kenya in support of sharia law.
Over at the left of Satan, Muslim terrorists struck today at a peaceful demonstration in Nairobi, Kenya. CSM reports:
Kenyan police are on the hunt for bombers who attacked a Nairobi political rally on Sunday night, killing at least six and injuring more than 100 in the run-up to an August 4 national referendum on proposed constitutional changes. The blast underscores the political fragility in one of America's most important East Africa allies, three years after election violence there left 1,500 dead and 300,000 displaced.
Two blasts occurred minutes apart at the end of a rally protesting the proposed draft constitution as a Nairobi Bishop was leading the several thousand attendees in a closing prayer, reports the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation. Kenya’s The Standard newspaper reports that a ten-year old boy was among the dead.
Kenya's draft constitution under fire for Islamic courts Christian Science Monitor
Kenya judges ruled this week that an Islamic ‘khadi’ court system that could expand under the new constitution is discriminatory. Human rights advocates say the issue has been ‘hijacked’ by those opposed to the draft constitution.
Kenya's efforts to pass a new constitution – aimed at preventing a repeat of 2007 ethnic violence – hit another hurdle this week, as judges ruled that it permits an Islamic 'khadi' court system that is discriminatory.
A three-judge panel said May 24 that the ‘khadi' court system, which arbitrates on matters of marriage and inheritance for Kenya’s Muslim minority, is discriminatory as it is based on religion. Kenyan law stipulates separation of church and state, though both the current constitution and the new draft constitution permit kadhi courts. A nationwide referendum on the draft constitution is set for Aug. 4.
Monday's ruling was reportedly praised by Kenya's church leaders, who in 2004 filed the original lawsuit against the constitutionality of kadhi courts. Nearly 70 percent of Kenya's population is Protestant or Roman Catholic and its powerful churches have already voiced opposition to the constitution because they say it eases restrictions on abortion.
“Kadhi courts are in fact a very minor part of the new draft,” says Mwalimu Mati, director of Mars Group Kenya, a governance watchdog in favor of the new constitution. “But we are entering the phase where both sides of the referendum are starting to square up to each other, and it will be a dirty war in which any issue is fair game for manipulation.”
Some members of parliament immediately called for the referendum's delay while the implications of Monday's court ruling are investigated.
Kenya’s attorney general, Amos Wako, has filed an urgent appeal against the ruling, saying today that he wants the issue resolved before the August 4 referendum.
Concern: Draft constitution extends jurisdiction of Khadi courts
Opponents of the khadi courts argue that the new constitution allows the courts to extend their jurisdiction from the majority-Muslim Kenyan coast across the whole country, which they claim will open the way to strict sharia law.
“That’s patently absurd,” says Hassan Omar Hassan, vice-chair of the Kenya National Human Rights Commission. “In fact, on both abortion and khadi courts, the new constitution barely changes the situation from the status quo we have now.”
Khadi courts are no different from other corners of Kenyan law which have been built up over decades of jurisprudence, Mr. Hassan says.
“It is another example of an issue which has been hijacked by those opposed to the new constitution,” he adds.
