Kenya Socialist Web Site
HARAKATI ISSUE NO. 7 (December 1999/January 2000)
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CAN THE CHURCH PROVIDE POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IN KENYA?
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One important feature of religion is that it has the capacity to make what
is unbearable bearable. Religion can make people suffering from poverty,
unemployment, inequality, oppression and other unacceptable conditions believe
that their suffering will come to an end when they die, time when the believer
will go to heaven or paradise depending on the good deeds the believer performs
on earth. In Kenya, many people are religious because of hopelessness and
withdrawal from real life as a result of frustrations and economic hardships.
Hopes are tied to heaven when everything looks bleak on earth.
In the Kenya, the Church has always provided hope whenever the opposition
becomes lethargic in tackling Moi. Throughout the eighties, the Church played
a big role in keeping Dictator Moi on toes at a time when the muzzling of
freedom of speech, assembly and opinion was at it's climax. Clergymen like
the late Bishop Henry Okullu, Rev. Timothy Njoya, the late Bishop Alexander
Kipsang Muge, Archbishop David Gitari and others have been in the forefront
in criticising the government and demanding change in the political situation.
In fact, public debate about Multi-partyism was initiated by the late Bishop
Okullu at a time when the issue of Multi-partyism was considered high treason
by the Moi Dictatorship. Vocal advocates of political pluralism were either
sent to prison on trumped up charges or detained. Others were murdered by
government agents or frustrated in ways that made it impossible for them
to practice politics. It was during this difficult period that the Church
emerged to start playing a major role in Kenyan politics.
In today's Kenya, the Church has become a permanent player in country's political
affairs, be it on the question of Human rights abuses, rigging of elections,
bribery and corruption, land grabbing or Constitutional review process. In
the current battle with Dictator Moi on how the Constitutional review process
should be conducted, the Church has outwitted the democratic opposition by
emerging as a force that has mobilised an alternative Committee to help in
the constitutional review process. This move has effectively denied KANU
the monopoly to address the issue of the constitution while the opposition
has congregated around the Church initiative after they lost in a meeting
with KANU on how the review process ought to proceed. Can the church provide
alternative political leadership in a situation where the opposition has
failed?
Our answer is no. When Christianity was introduced in Kenya by British colonialists,
the purpose was to use religion to colonise Kenya and subjugate Kenyans.
After flag independence, the Church grew alongside the Neo-colonial state,
not just to serve the interests of the emergent ruling class but also to
pacify Kenyans in preparation for their peaceful exploitation by agents of
British colonialism. Land could then be grabbed in the name of building Churches
where the sheep could congregate to worship the new Lord Jesus Christ. The
"white settlers" retained vast pieces of fertile land in the "White highlands"
by signing contracts with the new government. Former home guards (read traitors)
like Eliud Mahihu, Chief Waruhiu (who was murdered by the Mau Mau for having
betrayed the Movement), Chief Koinange and others were elevated to positions
of authority.
Traitors like John Gatu was even made a Church elder where he rose to become
a Right Reverend in the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA). The systematic
destruction of traditional religious belief systems in Kenya had began. The
worship of Ngai by the Kikuyu community, Nyasaye by the Luos and other age-old
traditional beliefs was branded as primitive and barbaric as the concept
of Jesus in the sky took root. Today, 75% of the Kenyan population is classified
as Christian, 20% Muslims and 5% is said to believe in traditional religions.
While these figures could be disputed, there is no doubt that religion has
become a source of lucrative business in our country.
Churches have sprung up at every location while sects formed by warring Church
groups seeking to control Church resources have been reported engaging in
physical combat or taking their protagonists to court to settle disputes.
There is a big competition for "the flock" and sophisticated electronic equipment
are routinely used at open-air fellowships organised by wealthy preachers
to woo the gullible poor into religion. Churches in Kenya run businesses,
collect money from the poor and own schools where they exploit the public
by charging very high school fees. We have in mind schools like Loreto Convent,
Alliance High School, Mangu High school, Bishop Gatimu girls etc, all top
schools owned by the Church.
Kenyans have witnessed a growing number of sex scandals within the Church
while the lavish lifestyles of Clergymen is not consistent with Church teachings
that Kenyans should continue to accept living in poverty and wait to enjoy
life in paradise when they die. The Clergy live in big mansions in plush
areas, drive expensive cars, reap huge amounts in salaries which also enable
them to go for lavish holidays abroad when thousands of Kenyans are starving.
Corruption scandals in the Church, sexual peccadilloes among the Clergy and
the opulent life-styles of men in robes has led some Kenyans to believe that
the Church in Kenya is linked to Devil worshipping which has sex, alcohol
and money at the centre of its activities. The Kenyan youth are responding
to the situation by abandoning the Church which have also become locations
for endless donations apparently aimed at different Church projects.
Although thousands of Kenyans are dying of Aids, Aids control measures are
being frustrated by the Church. A big controversy has engulfed the Nation
with the Catholic Church dismissing the use of condoms as a method of Aids
control while other Churches arguing on the same lines have also ganged up
to frustrate the introduction of sex education in schools on grounds of morality.
This is despite the fact that unwanted pregnancies are forcing young girls
out of schools while botched abortions are claiming the lives of hundreds
of young girls whose lives could be saved through sex education.
While KYMS believes that freedom of worship should not be curtailed in Kenya,
the Movement takes the position that the role of the Church in maintaining
the political status quo should be exposed. The political limitations of
the Church have to be outlined so that Kenyans do not expect the Church to
carry out political tasks that men of religion cannot handle.
Although the Catholic and the Anglican Church have positioned themselves
as major "stake holders" in the Constitutional Review process, the Catholic
Church is answerable to the Vatican while the Anglican Church reports their
operations directly to the Queen of England. Through the pulpit, the Church
in Kenya is organised in a way that it serves as an ideological control mechanism
aimed at justifying the very system under which Kenyans suffer. For example,
Church Ministers preach to their poverty-stricken flock that it is their
sins and not the workings of capitalism that is responsible for their poverty.
Religion therefore, is used to mask reality, preserve the existing social
order and to justify exploitation and the class system that results from
the capitalist mode of production.
The faithful are told that by putting up with their poverty, deprivation,
miserable existence and suffering on earth, they are doing the right thing
in accordance with God's will. In fact, the bible even suggests that in heaven,
poor people will be given preference over the rich, a tacit admittance that
there is no need changing this world when paradise awaits the poor in heaven.
The involvement of the Church in Kenyan politics is also based on the lack
of an outlet for the grievances of the oppressed in the country, a situation
that has put the Clerical class under pressure to become "radicalised" in
defence of the poor. During every political crisis, new interpretations are
given to the bible at the pulpit to justify the Church's involvement in local
politics and to give men of religion an opportunity to criticise the rich,
all in the name of Jesus.
Published by Kenya Socialist Democratic Alliance
(KSDA)
email: harakatips@hotmail.com
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