NAIROBI, November 12, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Following closely on the heels of a public clash between abortion supporters in the medical community and pro-lifers at a Nairobi court, Kenyan religious leaders have vowed to fight the advance of abortion in their country.
Yesterday, LifeSiteNews.com reported that a Nairobi gynaecologist-obstetrician, Dr. John Nyamu and two nurses are being charged with 15 counts of murder after the bodies of aborted babies were found dumped on a highway.
Yesterday, a group of Kenyan religious leaders issued a statement that warned government against legalizing abortion, calling it “murder and a grave moral offence.” Catholic, Anglican and Muslim leaders said, “Life starts hidden, unprotected and defenceless. We must remember that the unborn baby’s rights do not depend on single individuals or parents. Neither do they depend on the laws or fashions of society. They are part and parcel of human nature. Life is sacred.” Pro-life aid workers in African nations say that Africans are well aware of the destructive campaign being leveled against their people by international abortion advocates such as Planned Parenthood International and UNFPA. “People have abandoned their culture for foreign cultures which condone immorality. Young children are left to do whatever they want,” said Sheikh Hamad Kassim a leader in Kenya’s Muslim community.
29 members of the Kenyan Catholic bishops’ Episcopal conference signed the statement and promised to use Kenya’s Catholic pulpits to fight the foreign push for abortion in their country. They said the right to life was both a matter of legal and natural justice and that the science of embryology had demonstrated beyond doubt that foetuses are human. “It has been particularly sad that some Members of Parliament and eminent medical doctors are advocating the legalization of abortion on the tenuous grounds that a woman has the absolute right to choose whether an unborn baby lives or dies,” Episcopal Conference chairman Cornellius Korir said during mass at the Mombasa Holy Ghost Cathedral.
Saying that Catholics who support abortion would be ‘banished from the Church’ the Catholic bishops pointed to legislatures as the first battleground. “We shall tell Kenyans to vote out MPs who are supporting the legalization of abortion in 2007 general elections,” Archbishop Ndingi mwana a’ Nzeki said. The Anglican Church is strong in Africa in both numbers and Christian orthodoxy. A statement from the Anglican community said abortion was “immoral, illegal and a shameful act against humanity.” Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi said the church would work with other groups to protect the sanctity of life. AllAfrica.com coverage: https://allafrica.com/stories/200411120414.html ph