Church should enforce the ideals it venerates

By Edward Kisiang’ani

As we approach the Easter celebrations, two fundamental issues are bothering me. On this Palm Sunday, I am disturbed that although Kenya has more Christians today than it did in 1963 the country’s moral fabric is worse off now than it was four decades ago.

Second, I am distressed that even though the country is moving closer to the realisation of a more democratic constitutional dispensation, there is little evidence among politicians and Government officials that they are ready for change. The two issues are related in the sense that most of the people who run Government are also members of the Church.

Besides signifying Jesus Christ’s victory over death, Easter symbolises the eternal life that is granted to all who believe in Him. More important, it represents the complete verification of all that Jesus preached and taught. Among other virtues, Jesus glorified the importance of love, honesty and justice. He condemned immorality and exhorted his followers to embrace the wisdom of God. Jesus asked Christians to repent their sins by asking for forgiveness from God.

Financial support

In Kenya, the Church has not appropriately represented Christ. While it acknowledges Government officials are corrupt, it continues to accept fraudulently acquired donations from civil servants and politicians. The Church cannot pretend to be the moral voice of the nation if it has no courage to reject financial support from corrupt individuals.

Driven by ethnocentric considerations, some Church officials will not tolerate anybody who undertakes to criticise the Government. It is precisely because diverse categories of the Church leadership cannot overcome their ethnic parochialism that Kenya has continued to experience the debilitating effects of moral decadence.

The Church should thus dedicate this year’s Easter to rejecting all those who have driven our country into a sorrowful state of disrepute.

Only recently, the country was hit by a mega-scandal in which officials of the Ministry of Education embezzled millions of shillings meant for the free primary education programme. Given the Education Minister Sam Ongeri has refused to take responsibility for the financial improbity, the symbolic suspension of his PS and other officials will not result into the recovery of the stolen money. Yet, the Church has not spoken against any of its members in the ministry who have been implicated in the scam.

The cemetery land scandal in which City Hall bought 120 acres of burial land in Mavoko township worth Sh24 million for Sh259 million is just one among the many fraudulent deals — Goldenberg, Anglo-Leasing, Triton Petroleum and maize scam — that have been witnessed in recent history. Although public officials who profess the Christian faith largely executed the cemetery land rip-off, the Church has not isolated them for censure.

When Parliament asked Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi to explain why citizens were receiving abnormally inflated electricity bills, he argued the Government could do nothing to protect the public from the exploitative tendencies of the Kenya Power and Lighting Company.

Attempts to repair the tattered image of the police force have not borne any fruit. Besides the fact that they have refused to abandon their old habits of soliciting bribes in exchange for poor service, police officers have enhanced their brutality index. Only last week, they killed seven people and injured several others in Kawangware.

Elsewhere, they viciously attacked demonstrating squatters at the Sabwani Agriculture Development Corporation farms in Trans Nzioa.

good governance

Police brutality should not be occurring in a country that is on the verge of getting a new constitution, which venerates the virtues of democracy, tolerance and good governance. Why hasn’t the Church reprimanded the police for their viciousness and the minister for his ineffectiveness?

On numerous occasions, the Church preached love, it has extolled the virtues of justice, morality and honesty. Time has come for it to compel its flock to walk the talk.

—Dr Kisiang’ani teaches at Kenyatta University. kisiangani2007@gmail.com