MOVEMENT FOR POLITICAL ACCOUNTABILITY (MOPA) UPDATE

1. MOPA was officially unveiled by way of the presidential human rights and accountability charter at Uhuru Park on 19th March 2007. This event was led by a number of influential religious leaders among them His Grace the Most Reverend Arch bishop Benjamin Nzimbi, Head of the Anglican Church of Kenya, Prof Abdulgafur El-Busaidy, Chairman Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, Mr. Rashmin Chitnis, Chairman, Hindu Council of Kenya and Pastor David Oginde of the Kenya Pentecostal Church.

2. Further, we have the support of the Catholic Church through His Grace the Archbishop Ndingi Mwana a’ Nzeki Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi and the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (CJPC) through Bishop Peter Kairo of the Catholic Diocese of Nakuru. The content of the charters is furthermore being used by the CJPC as a manual for instruction on civic education during their ongoing lent campaign. MOPA has also received public endorsement from the Catholic Church through a paid up advertisement by the Catholic Religious Superiors’ Conference of Kenya (RSCK) carried in the Sunday Nation of May 27th. The Catholic Church has recommended that the prescriptions contained in the charters be addressed to all those who seek office-elected or appointed-as a prime condition of their eligibility.

3. On May 2nd 2007, the parliamentary human rights and accountability charter was launched at Uhuru Park. This event was attended by over 40 parliamentary aspirants drawn from all parts of the country. The aspiring candidates were afforded an opportunity to greet the crowd and state the constituency in which they would be contesting. Nearly 2,000 people turned up at this launch which was covered by all the major media houses.

4. MOPA took the accountability charters to Rift Valley Province on 5th May 2007 when a public event was held in Nakuru Town under the leadership of the Kenya Land Alliance, KLA. The turn out at Nyayo Gardens was average due to inadequate mobilization but nevertheless, the event still drew fair coverage from the two main dailies. We thus learnt of the important need to mobilize on a massive scale well before future launch events so as to maximize on attendance.

5. We took the campaign to Western Province in the second week of May with a number of innovations. The steering committee had taken a decision to first reach out to religious leaders and other local opinion leaders and seek their buy-in into the initiative. An advance team accordingly traveled to Kakamega between 11th-13th May to establish liaison with various churches and Mosques in the provincial head quarters. This culminated in an outreach workshop with about 500 religious leaders drawn from diverse denominations from all the 9 districts of Western Province on 18th May 2007 at Bishop Stam Memorial Guest House in Kakamega Town. Maina Kiai, Chairman KNCHR delivered the key note presentation to the leaders which was very well received and this group resolved to take back the gospel of MOPA to their congregation and preach its values from their respective pulpits.

6. The formal launch of MOPA in Western Province took place on 19th May at Masinde Muliro Gardens and over 2,000 people turned up. The popular Vitimbi comedians performed two plays to educate the crowd about MOPA and our campaign for bottom up demand for accountability. Various MOPA stakeholders explained the salient features of the charters. About 70 aspiring candidates to Parliament graced the occasion including nominated KANU MP, Hon. Prof Ruth Oniango. Further, Hon Mukhisa Kituyi, the Minister for Trade and Industry had earlier called to express his support to MOPA which matter was communicated to the attendants. At the end of the launch, “the Kakamega declaration” was issued to the effect that the voters from Western Province would not solicit for bribes from aspiring candidates during the campaign and that they would seek to hold their leaders to account. 50,000 copies of the charters were distributed to various networks and they proved too few due to the very high demand.

7. After the launch in Kakamega, we met with the national officials of Maendeleo ya Wanawake, a women’s grass root organization whose membership is in excess of 3 million. The National Executive Council of Maendeleo has now formally endorsed MOPA and copies of the charters will be distributed to all their branches so as to reach as many of their 3 million members as possible. We have also received the support of Hon Mohamed Kuti, Minister for Youth Affairs who has publicly endorsed MOPA and continues to give us moral support. Further, the Minister has indicated his willingness to attend future launch events so as to communicate his support in our forums.

8. We are currently in the process of reaching out to political parties and have so far written to all the major political parties intending to field candidates during this year’s elections. Meetings with the national officials of these parties and some of those seeking party tickets are scheduled for the months of July and August. We are also reaching out to trade unions, parents’ associations, the private sector, micro-credit institutions, professional associations among others and meetings have been scheduled over the month of July to explain the charters to their membership further and in the process obtain their endorsement and support for this campaign.

9. One of the lessons learnt from Kakamega was the need to have the charters translated to Swahili so as to communicate more easily to a larger portion of the population in a language they could understand. With the help of a staffer from the leading Swahili daily, “Taifa Leo”, the charters and explanatory notes were rendered in Swahili in the last week of May.

10. Armed with the Swahili translations, MOPA took the campaign to Coast Province in the beginning of June. Once more, the model of first reaching out to religious leaders prior to launching the charters, as we had done in Kakamega was adopted. A team led by Commissioner Hassan Omar had traveled to Mombasa in the last week of May and held far-reaching consultations with the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya, the Coast Inter Faiths Council of Clerics, Kituo cha Sheria and Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI). The Council of Imams and Preachers at this point formally joined the steering committee of MOPA.

11. Two outreach workshops were held with the religious leaders owing to the cosmopolitan nature of Coast Province. On 7th June, Baluchi Hall in Mombasa Town hosted a workshop for 125 leading Islamic clerics drawn from all the districts of the vast Coast Province. They were taken through the charters and at the end of the session, the Baluchi Hall Declaration was issued wherein Sheikh Mohamed Dor led the Imams in reaching consensus that everything included in the MOPA charters concurred with the teachings of Islam. Among the resolutions arrived at was that local communities will take MOPA and contextualize it to fit their local problems so that they could demand for accountability on issues that touched on their daily lives as prescribed in the charters. The Imams resolved to induct their colleagues from the districts they had come from and further undertook to teach their faithful on what MOPA would mean to voters if they took responsibility and demanded accountability from their leaders

12. On 8th June, KNCHR facilitated a workshop with 304 Christian leaders from all the districts of Coast Province. Again, MOPA was very well received after key note addresses by Fatuma Ibrahim, KNCHR Vice Chairperson and Commissioner Tirop Kitur. The Christian leaders were in agreement that they hold a dual responsibility-to hold political leaders to account and also to empower their flock to demand better service delivery from politicians and public officials. There was consensus that if this group took up the idea and pushed on with it, then the possibility of electing better leadership could increasingly be realized. They therefore formed an ad-hoc secretariat under the auspices of the Nyali Baptist Church / Kenya Church to coordinate the dissemination of MOPA charters in Coast Province and arrangements are underway to facilitate them with sufficient copies of the charters to penetrate every corner of Coast Province.

13. MOPA was officially unveiled in Mombasa Town at Makadara Grounds by the Assistant Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Hon Danson Mungatana, KNCHR Vice Chairperson Fatuma Ibrahim and Commissioner Hassan Omar on 9th June. The crowd was huge and the Assistant Minister formally endorsed the campaign and praised the good work that KNCHR had done in working with others to induce accountability. Among other notable participants was the Chief Kadhi who lent the official support of his office to the campaign. The Vitimbi troupe was a huge attraction and they performed a number of skits on civic empowerment which proved extremely popular. Over 25 aspiring candidates attended and they were allowed to briefly address the crowd. 45,000 copies of the charter were distributed in Swahili while over 5,000 English copies were distributed over the 3 days MOPA was in Mombasa. As has become the norm, the demand for charters outstripped the available supply. Road shows by the Vitimbi Troupe and the MOPA Advance Mobilization Team drew in huge crowds. Further, KBC Radio, Radio Rahma, Baraka FM and Easy FM (Nation) aired live talk shows where various MOPA steering committee members talked to audiences about the campaign

14. MOPA has just come from Eastern Province where we were between 13th and 16th June 2007. An outreach workshop with 156 religious leaders was held with the support of GTZ at the Izaak Walton Inn, Embu Town on Friday the 15th of June. Ndungu Wainaina of NCEC presented the key note address on MOPA. At the end of the workshop, a Mt Kenya region MOPA steering committee was formed by the pastors who are very eager to embark on this crusade of accountability with their respective congregations. They resolved that they had a responsibility to educate voters on how to make more informed choices and that as leaders, they would lead by example and challenge politicians who were not willing to sign up to the charters

15. The Charters were promulgated in Embu Town at the Old Show Ground also known as Kamukunji Grounds on 16th June in which the biggest crowd of the MOPA events so far, estimated at over 4,000 people turned up. The Vitimbi troupe once more was the star attraction with their play entitled MOPA. Vitimbi also undertook road shows the day prior to the launch which were very popular with the residents of Embu Town. Commissioner Hassan Omar made the key note address at the launch which highlighted to the crowd that MOPA was not a new political party as some thought but a means to reverse the nature of the relationship between voters and their leaders; that leaders are servants of the people who are their true employers.

16. At the conclusion of the launch, the attendants resolved that they will ask all those aspiring to lead them to first sign the charter before they could address them. The enthusiasm for MOPA that we have seen in Embu towards the demands for accountability leaves no doubt that the idea is quickly spreading and taking root. We were inundated with demands from attendants from surrounding districts to hold launch events in their localities. Citizens want to be involved and to be part of a process which they see as capable of changing the way in which things are done and we are heartened by this massive show of support.

17. The next round of launches will take place in the new financial year starting 1st July. The plan is to take MOPA to Nyanza-where the grass root networks and the religious leaders have been ready for a while, before taking the initiative in mid July to Marsabit and Moyale Districts. Commissioner Godana will provide the lead in MOPA’s foray to Upper Eastern Province as he bids farewell to KNCHR. We will close July by taking MOPA to North Eastern Province in which the Vice Chairperson Fatuma Ibrahim and our Wajir Regional Office will lead us.

 

Notes

KNCHR is for the moment providing secretariat and logistical support to MOPA. In this capacity, KNCHR hosted a donor round table at the Norfolk Hotel on 22nd May where representatives from over 15 development partners/ Embassies and /or Aid agencies attended the breakfast and the MOPA Action Plan was presented to them. MOPA has elicited huge interest from the international / donor community due to its unique bottom up approach campaign focusing on long term impact and we are already receiving firm commitments of financial support to implement the campaign. So far, German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) has committed to support various aspects of the campaign to the tune of Kshs 23.3 million.

The Resource Mobilization also targets the steering committee members to commit their own resources. So far the Kenya Land Alliance has committed Kshs 500,000/ - this current year towards MOPA with a further promise of Kshs 2 million. In addition, the Chairman of KNCHR Chief Maina Kiai has also made a personal contribution of Kshs 500,000/- to MOPA.