KENYA: Bishop supports prime minister's call for Palestinian state

A Kenyan Anglican bishop has backed a call by the country's prime minister for Palestinian independence, made at a ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of deadly bomb attacks in East Africa that the authorities blamed on al-Qaida.

"I support an independent state for Palestinians. Much of the terror there has to do with a degree of oppression and suppression by Israel," Bishop Gideon Ireri of Mbeere told Ecumenical News International on August 7 from central Kenya. "You only need to go to Gaza and see the degree of oppression we are talking about."

Ireri was commenting on a statement that Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga made earlier the same day. Odinga had said that unless just solutions were found to crises such as that in the Middle East, there would be an increase in the kind of extremism that led to the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 230 people and injured another 5000.

"We need ... to hasten the creation of an independent state for Palestinian people and provide Israel with secure borders," said Odinga.

Bishop Ireri, who heads the Anglican Church of Kenya's peace and justice commission, described the situation in Gaza as an example of international human rights violations. He said the Middle East crisis was affecting the whole world. "The prices of oil continue to rise because of this crisis," said Ireri. "The world community is suffering."

In his speech, the country's prime minister sought to reassure Muslims in Kenya who have complained of being discriminated against by the authorities in the aftermath of the bombings.

"Let me dispel the falsehood that these terrorists are acting in the name of Islam, or that our anti-terror efforts are directed at Muslims," Odinga said. "The whole world knows Islam is a religion of peace."

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