some more civic education from Mutula Kilonzo:
http://www.standardmedia...ndpoint%20on%20abortion
By Mutula Kilonzo
The debate on the Proposed Constitution is enlightening. It is enlightening not because of what is being said, but more so for what is not being said. Take for example the issue of right to life.
The proposed law attempts to deal with this complicated moral issue. Indeed, the current debate has ignored the fact that the first and the second drafts of the Committee of Experts (CoE) did not contain a clause on right to life. The debate has also ignored the fact that the entire Article 26 on such right originated with the Church.
Church leaders substantially, made these proposals to the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) in its meetings in Naivasha. The National Christian Council of Kenya (NCCK), the Catholic Church, presented signed Memoranda and the Evangelical churches to the PSC and adopted.
The current bone of contention on the issue arises from the words "trained health professional" and "or as authorised by any written law" in Article 26 (4). The CoE inserted the words after the Naivasha Accord of the PSC. CoE was entitled to do so. The CoE argues, with justification, that many Kenyans do not have access to the services of a "certified" medical health practitioner as required by the Church.
The words "or if permitted by any other written law" in 26 (4) are in fact almost identical to "except to the extent authorised by this constitution or other written law" in 26(3). The two sub-clauses form a window for dealing with death penalty in (3) and for dealing with emergency surgical procedures intended at saving the life of the mother of a Kenyan unborn child/human embryo in (4).
The current Constitution has been running the country since 1963. It provides no recognition/protection of an embryo/unborn child.
Article 26 (4) of the proposed law is therefore a serious advancement of the all-important Christian standpoint on objections to abortion. Worse still, the debate has paid no attention to the existing law of the country on the question of Right to Life.
On August 1, 1930, the colonial administration enacted for Kenya the current Penal Code, Chapter 63 of our laws. Under section 7 of the said Code, ignorance of the law does not afford any excuse for any act or omission contrary to law.
Section 214 of the Code is entitled "When child deemed to be a person".
Apart from the Ten Commandments therefore, this is, for the ‘No’ clergy, the only legal provision that appears to protect an unborn child or human embryo in Kenya when in its mother’s womb. But does Section 214 of the Penal Code really protect an unborn child or human embryo?
It provides as follows: "A child becomes a person capable of being killed when it has completely proceeded in a living state from the body of its mother, whether it has breathed or not, and whether it has an independent circulation or not, and whether the navel-string is severed or not."
You do not need to be a rocket scientist to realise that this means that for present Kenyan law, life commences only when a child completely proceeds to land on Kenya’s soil in a living state "from the body of its mother". You do not need to be a rocket scientist to see that if the Proposed Constitution with its Article 26 (4) protects the killing by abortion or otherwise of a Kenyan inside their mother’s womb, which has not been the case since 1930.
The proposed law expressly, for the first time, outlaws abortion. The right to life must be limited as in 26 (3) and (4).
The great Lao Tsu, a Chinese philosopher, wrote more than 2,500 years ago that, "Even when a great resentment is reconciled some resentment must linger. How can this be made good?" Many Christians, like the author, are saying ‘Yes’ because they want abortion abolished; their pastors are saying ‘No’. Resentment is building up. How will you make it good?
—The writer is Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affair
Isaiah 65:17-Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth, and no one will even think about the old ones anymore