Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
Members of Inter-Religious Council of Kenya (IRCK) have raised political concerns to the public ahead of 2022 General elections, advocating for peaceful co-existence for citizens and the difference political party members. 
Religious leaders
“We express our deep concern about the emerging political intolerance and appeal to politicians to embrace diversity of opinion,” members of IRCK said in a statement co-signed by Fr. Joseph Mutie the Chairperson of IRCK and Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia the Chairperson of National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCIC), one of the major faith communities that constitutes IRCK.
Cognizant of the “emerging patterns and trends of electoral violence nationally, the polarized discourses by political elites and the mobilization of youths towards violence,” Religious leaders and institutions “strongly encourage all political parties to sign and respect the electoral code of conduct elaborated by the IEBC (Independent Electoral Boundaries commission), the political decency charter by the NCIC and to participate in a constructive and peaceful manner in the entire electoral process including after election.”
The IRCK members including the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) among others, bring together all major faith communities in the country that work together to deepen inter-faith dialogue and collaboration among members for a common endeavor to mobilize the unique moral and social resources of religious people and address shared concerns.
In their Wednesday, October 27, statement, the IRCK members recall the “bad experiences with the 1992, 2007/2008 and 2017 post-election violence,” and emphasize on the need to support IEBC to ensure enhanced and regular dialogue with all candidates in order to ensure a peaceful process before, during and after elections.”
“We urge our congregants to embrace civil duty of making informed decisions, get registered as voters and be ready to vote,” leaders of religious groups said urging citizen to register for the upcoming General Elections adding that, “We prevail upon you to ensure that your name is in your preferred polling station and to observe law and order now, during and after the August 2022-elections.”
Besides, the statement reads in part,” we encourage the IEBC to focus on technical issues deemed critical to elections legitimacy, such as the electoral databases reliability and elections results compilation.”
Addressing the youths who in their observation have not turned out for IEBC voter registration, IRCK members asked the young people to “harness their full potential and leadership as effective peacebuilders and break the destructive narrative of young people as drivers of conflict or as victims.”
They further urged media practitioners to “maintain high level of professionalism, accuracy and impartiality in their coverage of political activities,” and social media users to “desist from using the space for incitement for violence and instead promote peace.”
The collision whose mission is to promote tolerance and understanding among faith communities in Kenya through mobilizing joint actions for social economic development, have promised to “support the established institutions to do their role in ensuring peaceful elections and offer to be part of a national mediation team to facilitate dialogue and disclose resolutions among all stakeholders,” and also commits to use their religious institutions structures and functions to talk to politicians and the youth to embrace peace ahead of 2022 elections.”