Asking whether Kenya is corrupt is like asking whether the pope is catholic. We are corrupt to the core. Our markets are corrupt. Our politics stink to high heavens. I even doubt whether the state house would pass the test of probity. (Memories of Magaryan brothers are still a bother to the Kenyan conscience. How much gets swept under the red carpet is only a subject of speculation.)
A word about the judiciary. In 2003, the newly elected NARC government attempted to clean up the judiciary. Judges suspected of corruption were subjected to an independent tribunal.The much hyped activity didn’t yield the break that the country was yearning for. The real break for the country may have come with the promulgation of the new constitution and the appointment of Judge Willy Mutunga as the Chief Justice. While graft still thrives in the corridors of justice in this country, we can safely assume that the worst is behind us now.
My worry now is the clergy especially those of the Christian hue. Civil society is incomplete without the active representation of the people of the cloth. When a section of the clergy caves in to decadence and moral famine, we must get worried as a nation.
The history of this nation is richer with the sacrifices of the true servants of God who really moved the nation to circumspection. Think of the late Fr. John A. Kaiser of the catholic diocese of Kilgoris. This humble servant of God stood against the excesses of the provincial administration and paid the ultimate price for the courage. He died in suspicious circumstances as he fought for justice for his flock.
(I will write more about bishop Gitaari after I have read his book ‘Let the bishop speak’)
The blood of Reverend Kipsang Muge still cries for justice for the poor of this country. The voices of Bishops Ndingi Mwana a’ Nzeki and Henry Okullu cried into the ears of autocracy until the ground moved. Reverend Njoya is probably the latest of a clergy that stood courageously against official oppression of the state.
What of today? Gone are the days when the house of God was a refuge for the weak. The tag ‘conscience of the nation’ no longer refers to our pastors, priests, bishops and imams. The largest portion of the clergy in Kenya has taken to heart the capitalist creed; ‘greed is good.’ It is now official; church is big business. Heartless, shameless, reckless and embarrassing. It is no longer about plundering hell of souls; it is the economy stupid!
A rider here may be in order. While I will restrict my views to Christian leaders, it doesn’t mean that the muslim and hindu practitioners of ‘the call’ are any cleaner from the blame.I just choose to narrow my scope for the purpose of this article only. If I were to write about the muslim and hindu clergy in Kenya, I don’t think that I would need to change my adjectives to describe them.
I recently witnessed a church break up in rural Gatanga constituency. The pastor used to work in Nairobi and would only come home for the weekend. The church ‘elders’ were largely idle. Trouble started when the church hosted a missionary couple from America. I am sure Isaac and Emma, for those were their names, know better than dishing money in the name of service to God.
I noticed the ‘elders’ start holding meetings in the weekdays when the pastor was not in. I suspected something was amiss. A few weeks later, the truth came out. Behind the back of the pastor, the church ‘elders’ with the financial support of the missionaries purchased a plot and registered a new church. A temporary structure came up within a week in the name of the church building. They then hired goons to steal chairs and even the toilet! from our church and transport them to the new ‘place of worship’. Voila! A new church had been born. It only took a week or so to convince the members to move to the new church.
With church leaders like these, Kenya surely can do without the devil. What happened in Gatanga happens across this country quite frequently.
You heard of the Bishop who used to take millions for offering prayers to the city fathers? Now it is public knowledge that the Nairobi city council is one of the most corrupt institutions anywhere in the world. Asking Bishop Njoka to raise a voice against the rot in city hall would be akin to asking him to bite the finger that feeds him.
The import of what I am saying is that church leaders should not only be above reproach. They should be seen to be so. Preaching water while imbibing choice wines only leads the flock further and further from God. And we have a more dangerous nation.
Ask Kenyans to draw the image of a man of God today. You will not get the picture of a wise shepherd holding the shepherd’s staff in a watchful gaze. A suitable image would be that of a vicious viper with fangs exposed to devour the sheep of the flock. Any wonder why congregations are dwindling?
In 2007, many church leaders colluded with politicians to fleece money from the general public by creating the now infamous ‘pyramid schemes’. When the pseudo-financial institutions came falling like packs of cards, the media crafted the word “gullible.” The church leaders prayed that we get a strong dose of amnesia and the government went mum just as expected.
Ethnic discord is the fodder that feeds our politics. Churches have done little to address this evil. It got worse in 2007 when even mainstream church leaders threw all care to the winds in support of their kinsmen in the political race of the day.
Whatever that happened to the National Council of Churches of Kenya under Rev. Canon Karanja! In his watch, the NCCK has become a non-entity in the socio-political affairs of this country. It should be remembered that the NCCK under the Rev. Mutava Musyimi in 1997 led the then president Moi and the opposition to sign the famous IPPG agreement. That agreement allowed the opposition parties to nominate their representatives to the electoral commission of Kenya. That agreement raised the standards of admissibility of Kenya’s electoral conduct. When history repeated itself in 2007, the NCCK stuck its head in the sand. The country went for elections with an electoral team that lacked public confidence. And sure to the script; the country erupted in the worst violence since independence following disputed results.
The Kiambaa tragedy should have awakened the church. Children and women were burnt to death in an Eldoret church. That is the epitome of the heinousness of the Kenyan society. But the worse bit is that we did not learn any lesson from that season of madness. Kenya may still implode again. (I digress; if not for anything else, that Kiambaa issue will surely cause the ICC to confirm cases against some Kenyans. Call me later in 2012.) After such a dereliction of national duty, the best that the NCCK under Rev. Karanja could do was to “repent” of the sins of “omission and commission.”Shame!
The 10th parliament had a large number of members of the clergy. Whether we got better or worse representation from these notables is not mine to tell. All what I can tell is that the voice of reason that should have spoken to save Kenyans from the dictatorship of the legislature didn’t come from any of the honorable members.
“Defend the cause of the weak and the fatherless;
Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
Rescue the weak and needy;
Deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”(Psalm 82:3-4, NIV)
This is the highest call of the Christian religious leaders. Any slight deviation from that standard is inexcusable.
There have been reports of sexual impropriety among church leaders in Kenya. Some leaders have also been known to result to dubious tricks to win members to their congregation. I know of a case from across the border in Uganda. (See The East African Magazine, July 16-22, 2007)A top Kampala Pentecostal preacher was returning home with a package that was passed as a “toy”. The customs official insisted on having a look. Inside the package was a gadget with a battery powered mechanism. The gadget is concealed in the clothes of the wearer. When activated, it produces an electric shock. The wearer of the gadget only receives a portion of the shock but the person he touches receives a stronger one. The recipient of the shock may fall down and shiver but the shock is not strong enough to kill. Miracle workers in Uganda had been using these gadgets to cause their followers that they were receiving the power of the “holy spirit”.
While I am not aware of Kenyan pastors going that ‘hi-tech’, I am aware of some local preachers who are employing some quite ungodly powers to aid their trade.
In this age when we are merchandising miracles and anointing oil, are we supposed to accept anything that comes? Kenyans beware.
(Written on 11th December 2011)
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