Church leaders express need to resettle internally displaced Kenyans

Published: 2008-03-26

NAIROBI, Kenya (CNS) -- Kenyan Catholic leaders expressed the importance of resettling internally displaced people in an effort to return the country to normalcy. Nairobi Cardinal John Njue said the church is urging the government to prioritize resettling the internally displaced people as part of its wider implementation of the peace and power-sharing accord between President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga. Such resettlement should aim at establishing a permanent solution to current problems, the cardinal said at an Easter Mass March 23 in Holy Family Basilica. The church already has made its contributions through humanitarian aid, "and we would equally be ready to contribute toward the establishment of a permanent solution to the issues" of displaced Kenyans and peace, the cardinal said. In an Easter message released March 20, Bishop Peter Kairo of Nakuru, head of the Kenyan bishops' justice and peace commission, said the country is filled "with hope that the peace agreement signed by our political leaders will hold."

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