Opinion: Prayers alone won’t solve our problems

President Uhuru Kenyatta PHOTO:COURTESY

At the beginning of this year’s Lent Period, Catholic Bishops held a public Mass, to which they invited the country’s political leaders.

It is here that President Kenyatta made his call for national prayer, peaceful elections and rain. “May we all join hands as Kenyans to pray for our beloved nation, for peace, unity, harmony, understanding, and also for rain,” he said.

The President's call hinges on the value Kenyans attach to prayers.

In October 2014, while thanking his supporters, he attributed the collapse of his case in The Hague to prayers: “Si mmesema si uchawi ni maombi?” (Didn’t you say it was prayers and not witchcraft?) Kenyatta told his cheering supporters.

Kenyans appeared contented with the appointment of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) chairman, one who claimed his unique contribution to slaying graft would be prayer. Most Rev. Eliud Wabukhala, in the esteemed view of vetting Members of Parliament, was considered the last best hope.

“We hope you will be able to slay the dragon because Kenyans are looking up to you as a man of integrity and a man of God. If you are not able, we do not know who else to turn to because we have tried other prominent Kenyans and they have failed,” Kuresoi North MP Moses Cheboi stated.

Yet despite prayer being my trade, I remain skeptical that prayers per se would adequately resolve these conundrums. The role that prayer played in Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr’s work during the Civil Rights Movement is captured in a recollection from his wife Coretta King.

For my husband, she said: “Prayer was a daily source of courage and strength that gave him the ability to carry on in even the darkest hours of our struggle.”

Citizens here have a model to emulate: If we choose to pray we must pray right. This is an admonition not only to the people but also to the President. The value leaders place on those they lead will directly affect how they rule and the residual impact of life in their domain.

Here is our giant problem: There must be a transition from just praying to gaining divine wisdom and developing sound policies.

Discerning right from wrong, like the Biblical King Solomon. Sound economic policies, more than prayers, should make Kenya prosperous.

It’s not a mystery why, for instance, we fail to provide proper healthcare for citizens.
While foreign governments, philanthropist and donors - including first Lady Mrs Margaret Kenyatta - have shown tremendous compassion and generosity to Kenya’s sick by giving substantive funds for Malaria, HIV/AIDS drugs, and vaccines, Government officials - including relatives of those in top seats - are stealing them through the back door.

President John Magufuli of Tanzania has fascinated many people through some of the actions he has taken via his motto: Hapa Kazi Tu.

Holding public servants accountable for their performance and demanding efficient use of public funds on one hand and getting to grips with corruption and tax evasion on the other is indispensable to the good governance agenda.

If Kenya could apply Tanzania’s vigour in restoring its leadership in the environmental sector, we might have begun hitting the right spot.

In destroying the water towers of the country, we unleashed disaster upon ourselves. Particularly since 2001, more than a quarter of the Mau forest (100,000 hectares) were allocated to settlers and cleared.

Consequently, there have been cyclical droughts in Kenya, which are becoming frequent, more severe and less predictable. Countless warnings have gone unheeded, as the late Prof Wangari Mathai, Nobel peace winner and head of Green Belt Movement, could testify.

Isn’t this the time to rise above politics and rectify this wrong? And going forward, the antidote for election violence is allowing the Independent Boundaries and Electoral Commission (IEBC) to conduct transparent and fair elections.

We recall the 2002 General Elections with nostalgia because the results were beyond dispute. Neither was there a dispute following the well-conducted referenda in 2005 and 2010, which reflected the will of the majority.

We saw trouble due to the opacity that shrouded the 2007 elections. We got away with murder in 2013 because of the safety valve; Supreme Court, whose reputation still lies in tatters over its contested ruling.

I do not think prayers will shield us from chaos if the electoral process in 2017 is suspect. Our President can work harder for Kenyans, besides calling us to prayers. He should rally us to work for a better Kenya. As St Benedict told his followers: “Laborare est orare” – to work is to pray.