By Barrack Muluka
It has been the week of calumny and outright deceit. From the Attorney General’s Chambers oozed out Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, straight into the Proposed Constitution.
In Uhuru Park we saw the colour of blood, flashed about the place by a slice of our spiritual superiors.
Elsewhere, our political superiors were bent on running with the credit of the Proposed Constitution, making it look as if it was their personal project. They alone should accordingly reap political mileage from it, if Kenyans should eventually vote ‘Yes’. Conversely, there were nihilists, taking advantage of the AG’s satanic verses to call for the stay of the wicked old order.
The truth is in trouble. Amidst the lies galore that now rule the Constitutional debate, the dreamer of dreams, has been reminded of what is written of the truth in times such as these. For, they say in the Good Book: "And Jesus said to them . . . ‘Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me . . . He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.’" (John 8:42-47)
The dreamer of dreams takes solace in the knowledge that according to the Good Book, liars and deceivers (on both sides of the constitutional divide) do not belong to God. The deceivers on the ‘Yes’ side will smuggle satanic verses into the draft while giving you to read a version of the draft without such verses. They seek to deceive you to vote for a satanic verse whose existence you don’t know of.
Alternatively, their intention is to occasion debate around Satanic Verses, with the object of aborting the whole process, on account of lack of integrity in the process. There is every possibility that this is mischief cooked in the AG’s chambers to sustain the wicked old order. This is regardless that the process is stalled, or that a ‘Yes’ vote is realised. The Attorney General ought to come clean on these satanic verses.
Our spiritual superiors on the other hand may want to be a little wary of speaking the language of the liar. At last Saturday’s political rally in Uhuru Park, dubbed a ‘prayer meeting’, two things stood out. First was the wilful misrepresentation of facts. But if Christ himself has taught us not only that lying is the language of the devil, but also that he is the way, the truth and the life (John 14: 6) can those who depart from the way of the truth claim to speak for God, although they carry robes and dog collars of piety? For, I do not worry much when politicians tell lies about land and sundry, or when others want to deceitfully hog all the credit in the event that Kenya gets a new Constitution. I rather worry about my spiritual superiors being less reliable as votaries of truth. For whom do I turn to when the men and women of God no longer hold the truth and Christ to be one and the same?
Secondly, Saturday’s choice of brand and symbols by the clergy was clearly misadvised. I would have thought they would choose colours and symbols associated with peace and reconciliation? But I saw they chose the colour of fire, violence and blood, instead. Was this a safe blunder, or are we to read more ominous messages in this? Prominent among the red objects was the red card, used to give marching orders to unwanted players in some games. Are these clergymen flashing the red card to Christians who support the Proposed Constitution? If not, they may want to rethink the full import of their symbols, particularly in the post referendum days.
But if our clergy were honest men and women, they would admit that it is not Kadhis’ courts they are afraid of. Rather, they are afraid of the pace at which Islam is spreading in Kenya. You even find mosques in Christian sponsored schools, while it is impossible to find a church or chapel in an Islamic school. But Islam is not spreading through Kadhis’ courts. Almost everywhere, Christian leaders are asleep or urging their faithful to raise money to buy the pastor a car, or build him a house. When they are not doing so, they are throwing chairs and evicting each other from places of worship. Others are asking you to send them money via M-pesa. Meanwhile, Muslims have been busy moving into their domain.
Clearly, people are fighting a lot of extraneous battles over the Constitution. I wish I could tell you to read it for yourself. But how can I when it is likely to carry satanic verses? Then I wish I could advise you to pray. But how can I advise you to pray with some well known unreliable characters? You are truly alone, with God.
—The writer is a publishing editor and media consultant.
okwaromuluka@yahoo.com
