Why are American fundamentalist Christian groups suddenly so active in Africa? Earlier we learned that leading evangelicals are behind the push to make homosexuality a capital crime in Uganda, and now we have a Pat Robertson front group spending large amounts of money to subvert Kenya’s proposed new constitution.

New York — An American-based group opposed to abortion has said it is donating “tens of thousands of dollars” to help defeat Kenya’s proposed constitution.

The American Centre for Law and Justice’s Jay Sekulow told the Sunday Nation that his Washington-based organisation is working through its office in Nairobi to tell Kenyans that the draft constitution would allow “abortion on demand”.

It is the first revelation of foreign funding given to church leaders in Kenya to campaign against the draft constitution.

The American Centre for Law and Justice is a non-governmental public interest law firm founded in 1990 by the controversial televangelist Pat Robertson well-known in Kenya for his programs on the Christian Broadcast Network.

Information available on the Internet indicates the centre has an annual budget of about $14 million (about Sh1 billion).