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| Fr. Jude Waweru, |
Fr. Jude Waweru, the Coordinator of Justice and Peace department at AMECEA told AMECEA Online News that the two conferences were chosen to participate in the ground breaking initiative which comes as a response to the need for Church to be proactive in bringing justice to helpless people who due to ignorance are often exploited. The department will be working on modalities to conduct similar workshops to the rest of AMECEA Conferences in the future.
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| Fr. Waweru giving his presentation during the workshop |
“Lack of transparency on the side of the government on how licenses are granted and on the side of the miners on the money made from mining. Other are land acquisition and displacement; and land acquisition and displacement ignorance; Most of the affected people, especially those exploited by the miners are largely ignorant and have no knowledge of how to go about expressing their grievances,” he said.
Fr. Waweru explained that on the 3rd of September 2013, the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peacebrought together the executives of the mining industry who gathered together in order to study “The principal ethical problems arising from their activities, especially in Africa and in other developing regions of the world.”
“Indeed a deeper investigation and intervention by the Church needs to be effected with an objective of advocating for better mining policies and the equitable distribution of the revenue to the service of the common good,” he said.
Coming from that background, AMECEA Justice and Peace Department in June 2013 collaborated with KENDREN (Kenya Debt Relief Network) to conduct a survey of the situation in Tanzania and Uganda by bringing national justice and peace commissions and other players together to understand the mining status.
“The findings of that research were thirsting for more action. Among others, the problem of negative environmental impact is clear. The degraded environment is leaving the entire ecological system disturbed, bringing forth affliction, not just to the animals and vegetation but also to the people whose livelihoods are affected,” he said.
It is against that backdrop that AMECEA Justice and Peace department felt the desire to do more in terms of bringing the Church leaders on board and assisting the Church to sharpen her prophetic voice for policy intervention.
During the workshop, which was held on 16th and 17th September 2014, it was proposed that the planned activities of interventions should be enshrined within the Justice and Peace operations as one of the activities that requires justice to be addressed.
Fr. Waweru told AMECEA Online News that one major problem that stands out in the Mining and extraction industry is the fact that workers are unable to agitate for their rights due to lack of organized unions. In this regard, it was proposed that the Justice and Peace Commissions should agitate the government to organize the mining workers into unions.
The other recommendation is for the government to make sure that it involves the community and the people around the mining areas every time they are about to offer contracts or license to any company to do mining so that the community may be aware of their rights and what to expect from the mining companies.
Fr. Waweru pointed out that land acquisition, displacement and resettlements of persons from mining areas has always been a big challenge and in most cases, members of the community are made to suffer in the end. “The government cannot be the one interested in mining and therefore interested in the land and at the same time paying for the land and resettling people without any other independent authorities monitoring the exercise. Chances are that the government will tend to be unjust in the way it settles the people or pays back land,” he said.
Fr. Waweru explained that Justice and Peace commission/department as an arm of justice within the Church should involve experts and lawyers in helping these communities to address those problems. “Any legal services in Kenya or everywhere else is expensive and the majority of ordinary people can barely afford especially when it comes to challenging the government,” he said.
Fr. Waweru said that there are lay professionals who may be willing to give some services for free for the benefit of the community, the Church should coordinate such kinds of free services and assist the community.
By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Social Communications