Kevin J. Kelley reports in the Sunday Nation that Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice–typically thought of as a “Christian Right” group, based in Washington and said to be founded by Pat Robertson–has said that “tens of thousands of dollars” are being spent through a new Nairobi affiliate organization, the East Africa Centre for Law and Justice, to oppose the proposed new constitution on the basis that it allegedly would allow “abortion on demand”.

The ACLJ is known primarily for legal work to defend Christian-related groups on religious liberty issues but according to its website also has an official position on abortion: “The ACLJ is committed to the sanctity of life and opposes abortion in all circumstances”.

Robertson’s 700 Club has early morning airtime on the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation. Kelley notes Robertson’s recent commentary on an alleged Haitian pre-independence “pact with the Devil” in relation to the January earthquake. I will say that nothing that I saw on the websites of the ACLJ (www.aclj.org) or the EACLJ (www.eaclj.org) mentions Robertson.

As for background of how the EACLJ came to be established, the ALCJ’s head of global outreach, Jordan Sekulow (Jay’s son) wrote last December 26 that he was flying to Paris to meet his mother and that the two of them would then travel to do work in support of offices in Zimbabwe and Kenya. In regard to Kenya he says that “a good friend and pastor from Iowa, whom I met during the Iowa caucuses introduced me to a well-known Bishop from Kenya who was interested in opening an operation similar to ACLJ-USA in Kenya . . . The Bishop and his fellow pastors have decided to speak out against the constitutionalization of the Sharia Courts and have called on the ACLJ to travel to Kenya and set up a full-time legal and government affairs operation where we’ll work with church leaders on this crucial issue.”