Who cares if the Chief Kadhi is entrenched in the Constitution?

"The provisions of this Chapter on equality shall be qualified to the extent strictly necessary for the application of Muslim law before the Kadhi’s courts, to persons who profess the Muslim religion, in matters relating to personal status, marriage, divorce and inheritance."

-Art. 29(4), Revised Harmonised Constitution of Kenya (8th January, 2010)

I have no problem in this provision or the the ones that regulate Kadhis' Courts (202 (1)(b) and 203). The basis for my position is not that they have been entrenched in the current constitution for nigh on 45 years, but the fact that Muslims in Kenya are an identifiable minority in need of protection from the Christian majority, who apparently define themselves as such.

The history of persecution of religious minorities is long and bloody. many Kenyans may not appreciate this, but Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) were massacred by Orthodox Christian Serbs simply for being Muslims. Adolf Hitler sent 6 million Jews to their deaths because they WERE Jews. The treatment by the State of Israel of its Palestinian minority will fuel the Palestinian war for decades to come unless the Jewish state re-thinks its position. The mantra "Israel has nuclear bombs but we have human bombs" should be an indication of the level of resistance the Jewish State faces.

We find ourselves at the cusp of a new beginning but we are at risk of losing the chance. Christian hard-liners who have forgotten that the basis of their faith are the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, are attempting to change the nature of our Christianity. They are attempting to persuade us that the battle for a new constitution is also a battle between the Islamicisation of Kenya or its secularisation. I respectfully beg to differ.

The new constitution is about fair and unfair; right and wrong; protection of human rights and abuse of human rights; good governance and bad governance; equity and inequity; justice and injustice. Last time I checked, victims of human rights abuses included Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Corruption in Kenya affected all Kenyans regardless of religious affiliation. To portray this draft as the end-result of a conspiracy to impose Shariah on an unsuspecting country is to mislead with extreme prejudice.

I will vote yes because I wish justice to reign over all things. One of my favourite lines in music goes something like: "Let righteousness cover the earth like the waters cover the sea." While the draft is not a panacea for what ails this benighted nation, but it is a credible first step to certain goals: justice, good governance and an end to impunity. I despair that there are those who wish to perpetuate a system that would not only guarantee that their pet peeves are not eradicated, but that would entrench even more firmly an unjust, unfair and, I must add, an un-Christian system!