QUESTION; Assess the role of civil society in the
democratization process of any one East Africa
country
Role of Civil society in the democratization process of Africa;
Case of the National Council of Churches of Kenya
(NCCK); Kenya.
“…such negotiated and controlled
transitions, the stimulus for democratization, and particularly the pressure to
complete the process, have typically come from the “resurrection of the civil
society,” the restructuring of the public space, and mobilization of all manner
of independent groups and grassroot movements.” Larry j. diamond says. He
further discuses all these zeroing to civil society. He earlier put to task the
readers to identify what force is behind great crusades, brave band s of
students, women match to give only a partial list other than the name civil
society.
In the article “democracy and
democratization in Africa, Sanjeev Khagram
cites the definition of civil society as, ‘Alfred Stepan defines civil society
as "that arena where manifold social movements...and civic
organizations...express themselves and advance their interests." Naomi
Chazan adds to this by suggesting that civil society "refers to the
segment of society that interacts with the state, influences the state, and yet
is distinct from the state." Thus, civil society is the intermediary arena
of associations between society more broadly and political institutions.’”
He further cites Naomi Chazan,
"Africa's Democratic Challenge:
Strengthening Civil Society and the State," World Policy Journal (Spring
1992), p. 282, as, “vibrant civil societies are seen as a critical check on
authoritarian rule. The nurturing of civil society is perceived as the most
effective means of controlling repeated abuses of state power, holding rulers
accountable to their citizens, and establishing the foundations for durable
democratic government.” Diamond further
attests to Chazan, “civil society is alive and well when citizens participate
in church groups, professional associations, women's groups, trade unions,
human rights groups, and civic associations in order to press for state and
economic reforms.”
Frank Khachina Matanga in the “civil society
and politic in Africa,” cites two types of
civil society as progressive or confrontational when it opposes and confronts authoritarian
rule and reactionary when it entrenches the authoritarian regime-morals, political
and economic support. Diamond (1994), reveals the diversity of civil society, “It
encompasses a vast array of formal and informal organizations engaged in a wide
range of activities to achieve economic, cultural, educational and
developmental goals.” Emma Porio also
associates civil society to movements. “Social movements constitute an
important subset of civil society. He further cites Rocamora et al (1998) also
added that the growth of civil societies has to be understood at four
inter-related levels: state, political society, civil society and international
actors. They also argue that democratic movements have to be always calibrated
within the post- Cold War politics. For a better appreciation of the
relationship among these entities, see schematic diagram below.”
Figure 1. Schematic representation of the relationship of state, civil
society, and the market.
He (Frank,
2000) attribute the rise of civil society in Kenya to the lack of formal
political organization (1982-1992) to confront government, this gave
credibility to civil society. Secondly, even multiparty system, schism along tribal
ethnic and personal ambitions for power empowered civil societies thus
continued role of civil society, however the government derived various oppositional
political attempts to contain civil society as legislation, propaganda, co-optation,
removal of anti established civil society loaders, and so forth.”
The civil
society in Kenya is
described as, “Kenya
has a varied and dense network of voluntary and civic associations. Urban civil
society appears to be quantitatively different from that found in rural areas. Rural
associations are oriented essentially towards improving the material quality of
life; a large proportion of rural voluntary organizations are credit unions,
cooperatives and labour pools. Student and professional groups are concentrated
in urban civil society and played a major role in pressing the government to
reinstate multiparty politics in the period 1990-1992 and to accede to at least
minimal constitutional reforms prior to the operatives 1997 general Elections.”
(Preface Leadership Book-1 East Africa)
The church at
the fore front, we dichotomize the role the National Councils of Churches of
Kenya, (NCCK). Many undermine the church’s role, but the church itself
recognizes it position in the civil society, this paints a picture of pro and
anti government positions; “…Church recognises its position within civil
society and has, at times, joined in the struggle for justice, although at
other times it has opted to be either supportive of the government in authority,
or has remained neutral with respect to political and socio-economic issues.”(Gibbs
and Ajulu, 1999:43)
The National
Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) formed in 1966 which initially constituted
thirty-seven mainline Protestant churches and para-church organizations related
to the Church Province of Kenya (CPK) and the Presbyterian Church of East
Africa (PCEA) denominations.
It’s on this forum which is the main arm
through which the constituent churches exercise their prophetic role (implying the
churches’ involvement in speaking out on political and socio-economic issues of
injustice and oppression) and involvement in civil society
in Kenya.
Its note worth that the Catholic Church joined the body latter on albeit
it’s already involvement in politics.
With such fabricated ground of
the NCCK, the role they played in the advocacy and democratization of Kenya is lined
below;
The NCCK played a major in defining Church-State
relations. From the start (1960 through 1970) it had a strong rather uncritical
relationship with the state. In 1966, in an article in its own magazine, Target, it
successfully criticised the governments proposed plan to build a prestigious
and expensive headquarters as a result these plans were shelved. Secondly, in 1970 when
it criticised the promulgation of the Hanging Act. Also at certain times it
gave support to individually initiated voices of protest against government
injustices like in 1969 Henry Okullu in condemning the tribal oathing (the
Kikuyu vowed an oath never to leave power, post Tom Mboya death.)
Through its objectives, the church addressed
socio-economic issues as opposed to political ones operating within the
governmental framework. This it did in three majors grounds; 1) Christian
Education and Training (both formal and informal education and was able to
identify the plight of youth, thus the ‘‘Village Polytechnic’ programmes’ which
became very popular).It also under took civic education n the mid-80s and early
90s which aided in the educating and preparing the civil society for multi
party election and democracy. By these activities it functioned as an
intermediary between the state and the government. 2) Relief, Rehabilitation
and Resettlement; and 3.)Christian Service and Urban Development. On the other
hand, the church was use to majorly do development work and shun politics. In
worse cases, a situation was created wherein the Church functioned as a
loyalist political structure. Priest taught people to only be law abiding, like
the Kenyatte era the church battled with the Harambee philosophy. NCCK
General-Secretary, John Kamau, a bosom friend to president thus unable to
address issues of concern directly; case to note political murder of a
prominent politician J. M. Kariuki. Divisions in the church also contributed to
the weakening of the church voice.
In 1986, it condemned and won public support against the queuing
instead of the secret ballot system. Under the shepherd hood of Bishop Gitari,
a pastor’s conference was set where over 1200 pastors attended and formed a
statement and signed by the NCCK general secretary and dispatched to the press.
The Roman Catholic Church (RCC) also gave full support as it debuted. It
achieved the democratic way of voting, the RCC bishop wrote a warning letter to
the president, they condemned queuing as a method of forcing people into
compromising their preferences out of fear of their superiors.
However, the
government only exempted clerics, senior civil servants as a bid to silence the
church. The president also sought alliance, thus the formation of the
Evangelical Fellowship of Kenya (EFK) registered in 1976 but operational in
1980 and at limelights in 1990-91 after president visit by her heads. It
comprised the
African Inland Church
(AIC), the Reformed Church of East Africa (RCEA), the Kenya Assemblies of God
(KAG), and the African Gospel Church (AGC).
The NCCK raised issues with the government based on its ability to provide clearly documented
evidence of such issues for example in the 1988 rigging of the general
election, some pastors of the CPK diocese of Eldorret led by Bishop Muge took
the courageous step of collecting data from Tinderet constituency where there
had been threats of intimidation if the constituents did not vote for a certain
candidate - Mr. Sego, against the incumbent MP, Mr. Henry Kosgey. A survey was
carried out by three pastors, Mr. Sego (total of 3341 votes) and the incumbent
MP Mr. Kosgey (total of 9385 votes
) The outcome was that Mr. Sego with a lower total vote was
declared the winner. NCCK published the results in its magazine Beyond, which
incurred government wrath to the end. The editor of the magazine Mr. Bedan
Mbugwa was imprisoned and the magazine was proscribed, by this
transparency was upheld thus democratization.
It strongly condemned the government and its abuse of power, like :
passing resolutions without proper debates for example, the declaration of the
one-party state was done after only 45 minutes!; rigging of elections; misuse
of public property and other social ills. While opposing one party state for a
democratic multiparty election in Kenya, professional association and
opposition dissidents later joined. In addition, under the leadership of Bishop
Gitari it used a mixture of law and scriptures to guard her actions like the
usage of Romans 13, set against Revelations 13 plus the passage in Mark 12:17
to develop a prophetic theology, “Politics to the Church was too important to
be left to the politicians alone. The Church was to realise that the State was
failing to protect its citizens, and instead was manipulating them as in
Revelations 13, where it becomes the beast and an apostate authority that needs
to be resisted and dethroned. The Church was to articulate that God’s authority
was superior to State authority which must operate within limits. Where the
State violates those limits hence clashing with God’s authority, then loyalty
to God’s authority must come first.”
It carried out sensitization and education role like a Department
of Justice and Peace in 1991 was created (collaboration efforts of RCC and
NCCK) with which it was determined to continue fighting State injustices
through a programme of educating people about their political rights and
democracy. This helped the NCCK redefine their major objective as to ‘promote
an interpretation and application of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that
gives meaning in the daily lives of people thus creating a united just and
sustainable society’. Their activities thus included;
1. help churches identify analyse
and disseminate information on global, national and local issues that influence
their daily lives;
2. facilitate research on two or
three national issues and encourage a common
approach among churches;
3. work towards an inclusive
interpretation of the Gospel which leads to social
action;
4. promote and advocate for
protection of human rights and natural social
responsibilities; and
5. build churches’ capacity to
process for the creation of a just society. (NCCK
1996: 1-5).
In its bid to educate and sensitise, themes provided for in the
literature included: 1. democracy as a way of life; 2. understanding
multi-party democracy in Kenya;
3. the role of opposition in multi-party parliament; and, 4. participation in
elections. All this as done joisted on the hope that they (Kenyans) would be
empowered to become politically active; which dream came through in
1993-mulitiparty elections that unfortunately saw the incumbent government
back.
In a nut shell, it’s quite clear that with the political
atmosphere of Kenya
par say the divided opposition, democratization was a way to far dream to
achieve of rather city in dwell in. the civil society especially the church
that had a big constituency was the most place body to confront the government
for democratization. Alongside the church (NCCK), were other civil societies
like the Kenya Law society (KLS), the students body and trade unions that
supplemented and complement the efforts of the church thus a realised dream.
Reference:
Larry J. Diamond, (1994); Rethinking Civil Society; Toward
Democratic Consolidation, Journal of Democracy
Vol 5, No. 3, July 1994.
Frank Khachina Matanga, (2000.) Paper Title:
Civil Society And Politics In Africa: The Case of Kenya
Conference: Fourth International Conference Of Istr, Trinity College,
Dublin, Ireland, July 5-8, 2000.
Sanjeev Khagram, (1993) Democracy and democratization in Africa: a plea for pragmatic possibilism. (Challenges to
Democracy) Africa Today September 22, 1993
Sara Gibbs and
Deborah Ajulu,(1999), The Role of the Church in Advocacy: Case Studies from Southern and
Eastern Africa; ISBN 1-897748-51-5. March 1999.
Emma Porio, Civil Society and
Democratization in Asia: Prospects and
Challenges in the New Millennium
Preface Leadership Book-1 East Africa,
(2007), document/ preface leadership book-1 east Africa.doc.18/09/07.
