Land real issue for Kenya referendum 'No' crusaders

For the churches, politicians and land owners crusading for a 'No' vote in the August 4 referendum on Kenya's new constitution, the real issue is defeating a crucial land reform.

The 'Reds' - colour attributed by the electoral commission to the 'No' camp - are organising meeting after meeting where they brandish the spectre of legalised abortion and khadis, or Islamic family courts, to get their fellow citizens to vote against the new constitution.

In Nakuru, 150 kilometres north of Nairobi, a dozen Kenyan tele-evangelists, their flashy suits glinting in the sun, have just led a prayer session "against the draft constitution in the name of Jesus".

Prominent in their 3,000-strong audience are Daniel Arap Moi, president from 1978 to 2002, flanked by the apostle of the No vote, Higher Education Minister William Ruto.

When the issues of abortion and khadis courts are raised the crowd holds aloft a sea of yellow cards, seemingly oblivious to the fact that abortion is actually illegal under the new constititution, except in cases where the mother's life is in danger and that the khadis courts are already ratified under the existing constitution.