Rtd Anglican Archbishop David Gitari passes on after short illness

Retired Anglican Archbishop David Gitari

By RAWLINGS OTIENO

David Mukuba Gitari, a retired and powerful Anglican Bishop is dead.

Gitari succumbed at around 2:15pm Monday afternoon upon being transferred to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) t Mater Hospital in Nairobi after he was resuscitated from the theatre where he had checked in for an operation.

The retired cleric who was one of the fiercest critics of retired President Daniel Moi has been ailing for a while.

Born on September 16, 1937 Gitari attended the famous Kangaru High School in Embu before attending the University of Nairobi for a Bachelor of Arts degree and was ordained to priesthood in 1972.

He married Grace Wanjiru on March 31, 1966 and God blessed them with three children.

Gitari was the third primate and Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya from 1997 to 2002 and at the same time, Bishop of the Diocese of Nairobi.

 His grandson, Dennis Itumbi, the Director for Digital, New Media and Diaspora broke the news of Gitari’s death on his Facebook wall.

Gitari’s pastoral work, however, led him into political controversy. He preached and campaigned against land grabbing by powerful politicians, challenging economic injustice on a national as well as a local level.

The late multi-party democracy icon was known to be a no nonsense bishop who didn’t fear being on the wrong side of the government because he felt that it was his duty to preach against land grabbing that was rampant during Moi’s era.