By NATION Reporter

Twenty three Catholic bishops will tomorrow begin leading their followers in countrywide prayers, seeking divine intervention for a people-driven review of the Constitution.

The move follows yesterday's launch of a national signature-collecting campaign - by the Non-Governmental Organisations Council - to petition MPs not to debate the review if it is tabled there.

The Catholics' first prayer session will be at the Holy Family Basilica, Nairobi, tomorrow, where all 23 bishops are scheduled to celebrate a special mass.

It starts at 10.30am, on a day the religious leaders have called "The National Prayer Day on the Stalled Constitution Review Process".

The mass will be followed by grassroots prayers nationally on October 31, where all the 23 Catholic dioceses and 630 parishes will pray for a people-driven review, said the Secretary-General of the Kenya Episcopal Conference, Fr Michael Charo Ruwa.

Launching the signature-collection drive at the Kencom bus stop, Nairobi, the NGO Council chairman Mr Oduor Ong'wen said the civil society hoped to raise at least 10,000 signatures.

"This is a voluntary and collective exercise by the NGOs, the Muslim Consultative Council, the Church, professional associations and the wider civil society," he said.

Regional NGO Council networks would co-ordinate the exercise in other parts of Kenya, he said.

The effort was all "geared towards getting the country back on track through a new social re-engineering hinged on a people-driven, people-owned Constitution."

He said "letting about 222 MPs chart the destiny of 30 million Kenyans, 54 per cent of whom comprise the youth - who never voted for the legislators - would be wrong."

Mr Ong'wen said Parliament was also weak in aspects of gender equity and its ability to articulate women's issues, those of the physically handicapped and other special interest groups.

"Parliament is not truly representative of the Kenyan population, and that's why even in Kanu itself there are many MPs who are for a people-driven Constitution," he said.

Mr Ong'wen said it would also "be wrong to ask the same National Assembly which has been responsible for creating an anti-people Constitution to solely formulate the new document."

The petition "calls upon Parliament to stop, prevent and/or terminate themselves from debating the intended and/or purported directly participate in the Constitutional Review debate which is inalienable right of the citizens of this country."

The petitioners "reiterate the validity and workability of the Constitution of Kenya Review Act, 1997."

They also "urge Parliament to direct, instruct and/or authorise the Attorney-General to pro-actively exercise the powers conferred upon him by section 4(2) of the Act and proceed with the review process in acccordance to the provision of the said Act."

Among those who signed the petition was a former assistant minister in the Office of the President, Mr John Keen, who called on Kenyans to fight all moves to stall or take the process to Parliament.

"Parliament lacks the credibility to conscientiously handle such an important task. All those legislators would be bought and would end up rubber-stamping decisions made by a small, self-serving clique that is largely responsible of running down the country," he said.

Safina Secretary-General Mr Mwandawiro Mgangha, who was also among the hundreds signing the petition yesterday, said the exercise was "a way of exhausting all available avenues - in any struggle, one can never tell where the opening will be."

He criticised calls by the Social Democratic Party for the postponement of the review until the 2002 general election.

"It implies that the review is being undertaken purely to remove Moi and Kanu from power, and is akin to telling Kenyans to stop struggling for a better Kenya," he said.

The Catholics' statement was a follow-up to their pastoral letter last month titled "The Stalled Constitutional Review Process: The Way Forward."

In it, the 23 bishops warned that Kenyans had become so desperate they may soon opt for civil strife.

They blamed the government for endemic corruption, hunger and the plunder of public resources, insecurity, collapsed infrastructure and the HIV/Aids pandemic.

If civil strife comes, "the current political leadership will be squarely held accountable for it," they said, while also accusing President Moi of back-tracking on reform. The bishops were then joined in their protest by the National Council of Churches of Kenya over the reforms and corruption.

Secretary-general the Rev. Mutava Musyimi said: "What Kenyans want is an overhaul of the Constitution by the people; taking it back to Parliament would only yield amendments."

He also said it was "time religious leaders stood firm to condemn corruption which the government has failed to address."

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