Preamble
The Catholic Justice and Peace Commission is an agency and tool of the church on the front line and on all frontiers of evangelisation (Gaudium et spes No. 90)
The Parish Priest is the chaplain of the Parish Catholic Justice and Peace Commission.
Membership in the Parish CJPC is by nomination/election by the Parish Council and by appointment / commissioning by the Parish Priest / appropriate Ecclesiastical authority. The Ecclesiastical authority can veto a nomination and demand the nomination of another person.
Members must be practicing Catholic faithful, loyal to the church, volunteers who are prepared to suffer and accept abuse for what they believe to be just and right in the defence and pursuit of Justice and Peace for all, especially the weak and oppressed.
Organisational Structure
Each small Christian community can propose four persons to represent four categories of people in the community; a man, a woman, male youth, a female youth (mzee, mama, mvulana, msichana)
Religious associations, Institutions and other relevant special interests in a parish can be invited to nominate representatives into the CJPC.
A parish co-ordinating Committee is formed with the required officials who will include the Parish CJPC Coordinator.
PROGRAMME OF ACTION
The programme of activities include the following:
Formation and Training of the members of the CJPC.
Promotion of awareness of issues of Justice and Peace in the community.
Advocacy and lobbying in cases of oppression and exploitation of the weak.
Reconciliation and conflict resolution in the community (c.f 1 Cor. 6:1-9).
Contributing towards good governance by providing integrated and on-going civic education which includes:
Good and responsible citizenship
Voter registration
Voter education
Monitoring of elections
Accountability of elected leaders
Constitutional review
Equitable distributions of national resources.
Consolata Justice and Peace Committee
The committee has mainly focused on four areas in the last few years it has been in existence, namely: good governance, networking with authorities and disadvantaged residents, conflict resolution and counselling.
Before the last General Election, Justice and Peace organised a very successful collection of views, which were presented to the Constitutional of Kenya Review Commission who visited our parish.
Justice and Peace also embarked on a scheme to conduct civic education using small Christian community leaders and a seminar was conducted in our parish to train small Christian community leaders on how to conduct civic education. The leaders were also provided with teaching materials. J&P views civic education as a continuous process.
J & P conducted seminars on civic education at Consolata, Deep-sea village, Kileleshwa and also seminars to disseminate the constitution.
Towards the general election, Justice and Peace sensitised parishioners on the voting process, the do’s and the don’ts and also on the need to cast one’s vote and the importance of inspecting the voters register to ensure one’s name is there and is correctly spelt. Incorrectly entered data turned out to be one of the main complaints on Election Day. Come Election Day, Justice and Peace was involved in poll watching under K-Dop and our poll watchers did a very good job.
Justice & Peace has been involved in conflict resolution in Deep-Sea, Maasai and Suswa villages and facilitated the election of village leaders to oversee areas such as general welfare and water administration.
Justice & Peace has been holding regular meetings with the PC, DO, Chief and Sub-Chief which has resulted in better understanding between administration and Deep-Sea, Suswa and Maasai villagers.
Our joy is having empowered the poor in Deep-Sea, Maasai and Suswa to stand up for their rights without being intimidated. For most problems, which they used to bring to us seeking our assistance and intervention, they are now able to take up with relevant authorities and sort them out.
Common issues have been the abuse of office by the administration, drug and alcohol abuse, mushrooming of new structures especially in Deep-Sea which could create problems for the old residents since Deep-Sea is already earmarked for slum upgrading programme, among other issues that keep popping up now and then. J&P makes solidarity visits when new issues threaten to generate into conflict.
Last year the youth of our Shrine requested for counselling facilities in case of an emergency need. A counselling team made up of professional counsellors from our parish was set up with the assistance of J&P.
Recruitment of New Members
There is need for more members to join the J&P Committee, especially professionals like lawyers and doctors.
It would be appreciated if the Parish Council members can suggest parishioners who would be willing to serve in this committee.
