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The Inter-Religious Council of Kenya through the Kenya Inter-Faith Elections Programme (KIEP) has warned against early political campaigns noting that, “this trend portends ill for our nation.”

In a press statement sent to CISA, the council expressed disgust that “politicians and aspirants at different levels are creating militias whose sole intent is to visit violence on Kenyans…This must be stopped forthwith,” the statement said.

“… We are in constant touch with what is happening on the ground, and we are now concerned about the trend that the current wave of politicking is taking. We, therefore, urge all politicians and their vested interests to cease making elections a matter of life and death for Kenyans,” the statement said.

The press release titled Prepare for Kenya’s 2017 General Elections called upon the Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to commit to operating transparently and be accountable to Kenyans.

“Any shortcomings in the elections are in essence a failure on the Commission to implement its mandate,” the statement said noting that up to date, the IEBC has not clarified specifically what it holds as the Principal Voter’s Register.

The council also called upon the IEBC to inform Kenyans of the measures they have taken to ensure that all the electronic devices required for the 2017 General Elections will function as they should.

The statement further decries the misuse of social media to stoke ethnic prejudices and balkanization, counselling Kenyans that, “the best security against those who are hell bent on destroying our national cohesion is to speak out against those messages and reject leaders who espouse the same,” Inter-Religious Council emphasises.

In 2007, Kenya erupted into political and ethnic-related violence following disputed presidential elections. The country was on the brink of a civil war. Some estimates say between 800 to 1500 persons were killed while between 180 – 600 000 were displaced from their homes.

(CISA in Nairobi/Vatican Radio)

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Birmingham, Ala., Apr 1, 2016 / 09:40 am (CNA).- Archbishop Charles J. Chaput presides over the Solemn Funeral Mass of Christian Burial for EWTN Foundress, Mother Angelica, live from the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Al.

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IMAGE: CNS

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- With a simple tap, Pope Francis joined Instagram and quickly set a record for gaining 1 million followers.

The launch of the "Franciscus" account March 19, the feast of St. Joseph and the third anniversary of the formal inauguration of his papacy, was preceded by huge media coverage. But still, he hit the million-follower mark in just 12 hours, making his "our fastest growing account on Instagram to date," said Stephanie Noon, an Instagram spokeswoman. The pope broke the record held for almost a year by former soccer star David Beckham, who took twice as long to gather 1 million followers.

Joining Instagram, Pope Francis jumped into a community that tends to be younger and more complimentary than people on Twitter, although with similarly impressive "engagement rates."

"Twiplomacy," an annual study conducted by the communications firm Burson Marsteller, found Pope Francis -- through his @Pontifex accounts in nine languages -- to be the most influential world leader on Twitter three years running. U.S. President Barack Obama has more followers, but Pope Francis' average "retweet" and "favorite" rate is more than eight times higher than Obama's.

Pope Francis' Instagram account is showing a similar pattern. The 17 photographs and two video clips posted by early morning March 31 had an overall average of 212,200 "likes" and 6,299 comments each.

The photos on the Franciscus account are taken by photographers at L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper. They are posted by staff at the Secretariat for Communications.

Msgr. Dario Vigano, prefect of the secretariat, told Vatican Radio, "The idea is to recount the story of a pontificate through images to let everyone who wants to accompany or wants to know the papacy of Pope Francis enter into his gestures of tenderness and mercy."

While the @Pontifex twitter account is "institutional" -- it was launched by now-retired Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 -- the Vatican's choice of the more personal "Franciscus" as the account name was dictated by reality of the platform, Msgr. Vigano said.

The photo-sharing site uses images as an "iconic sign," he said, and so "immediately evokes the face, the smile and the posture of the pope. Every pope has his own facial expressions and his personal way of looking at people, caressing them and blessing them."

"Instagram is mostly about pictures, which makes it a very effective way to spread Francis' message of tenderness," said Greg Burke, assistant director of the Vatican press office. "If people are looking at their phones 150 times a day, it's good they see something a little more profound than pictures of food."

After settling down for a few days, the comment rate on the pope's account spiked March 29 after the Vatican posted a video clip with the hashtags tenderness, mercy and Catholic.

The video opened with the pope blessing the obviously pregnant belly of a woman and included scenes of a little boy taking the pope's zucchetto and Pope Francis and retired Pope Benedict XVI greeting each other. The more than 6,300 comments it attracted remarked particularly on the beauty of the gestures and expressed enthusiasm for Pope Francis.

The video was among the first on Instagram to be 60 seconds long, Msgr. Vigano said. The social media company had just announced that day that gradually users would be able to exceed the previous 15-second limit.

The video and its popularity illustrates how "a gesture of love is more obvious than a speech about love," said Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, author of "Cybertheology: Thinking Christianity in the Era of the Internet" and editor of "La Civilta Cattolica."

The Jesuit told Catholic News Service that while the pope communicates well verbally and in writing, his message is wrapped in "his closeness, his gestures and his physicality, which photos communicate."

Father Spadaro also said members of the Instagram "community," like many people today, take photographs primarily to share an event rather than to preserve a memory. "Who looks through old photos anymore?" he asked.

He also insists that Pope Francis has been on Instagram since the moment of his election -- through the photographs shared by people who have seen him in Rome and around the world. In fact, as CNN reported in March, "According to Instagram, his visit to the U.S. in the fall of 2015 generated 21 million posts, likes and comments from 9 million people."

"A beautiful photo isn't necessarily a perfect photo," Father Spadaro said. A strong picture "communicates an event and emotion," which in people's photos of the pope can have a strong impact even if they are out of focus or taken from far off.

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Follow Pope Francis on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/franciscus.

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Follow Wooden on Twitter @Cindy_Wooden

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(Vatican Radio)  Concerns about North Korea's ambitions and the threat of terrorism topped the agenda at the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington. U.S. President Barack Obama is holding a series of key bilateral and trilateral meetings in addition to the summit itself.

Listen to Priscilla Huff's report:

The 2016 Nuclear Security Summit began with one major achievement on the table. The agreement between Iran and the international community on its nuclear programme. 

Now, Sharon Squassoni of the Center for Strategic and International Studies says, this summit needs to focus on another goal - securing radioactive materials which could be used in a dirty bomb.

"It's just simply maybe a medical radio isotope that you use for cancer therapy, you wrap it in explosives and then you set it off, as a terror device. There's a lot more to be done of strengthening the security of those sources and these summits have done a little bit on that but there's more to be done."

US President Barack Obama started his day with with a trilateral meeting between Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korea's President Park Gyun Hye.

"Because of the topic of this summit, the Nuclear Security Summit, it's not surprising that one of the topics most on our minds is the issue of North Korea.  And we are united in our efforts to deter and defend against North Korean provocations.  We recognize that our security is linked, that we have to work together to meet this challenge.  And we also recognize that it is important to the entire international community to vigilantly enforce the strong U.N. security measures that were passed in light of some of the ballistic missile and nuclear activity that Pyongyang has been engaging in."

During his bilateral meeting with China's President Xi Jinping, President Obama repeated this pledge to hold North Korea to account, as well as addressing another pressing issue: The United States and China have established a relationship when it comes to nuclear security, and that includes China's new Nuclear Security Center of Excellence.  I believe we can deepen our cooperation, including against nuclear smuggling.

But experts point out a small transfer of nuclear technology can make a big difference, as was seen when North Korea supplied information and know-how to Syria.

U.S. Ambassador Robert Galluci has held a series of top positions, negotiating American priorities on nuclear technology. "But what is starting is, the possibility that Japan, if it starts, a reprocessing plant, Ukoshu(?) next year, would have an 800-ton plant which would be producing thousands of kilograms of plutonium and that plutonium would be cycling all around Japan, fueling reactors, all over the country. What could go wrong?"

It's precisely this idea the threat of a small amount of radioactive material such as plutonium going missing and possibly becoming part of a dirty bomb that's on the menu as leaders from more than 50 nations hold a working dinner at the White House.

Seven years after he first outlined his vision for a nuclear-free future, U.S. President Barack Obama wrote in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post this summit is just one of many concrete steps being made toward a world without nuclear weapons.

But even as the discussions about securing nuclear technology and radioactive material continue the American president knows, there's a long road ahead.

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