Bishop Oginde, avoid these people lest your flock gets to Canaan without you

By Barrack Muluka

Receive Christian greetings, Bishop David Oginde. I see you have found favour with God and you have this week been consecrated the Bishop of the Christ is the Answer Ministries (Citam).

To God be the glory, the great things he has done and the great things he has taught us. Here is wishing you very well in your new tour of duty.

There are those screaming at me to refrain from my epistolary discourse with the men and women of God, in this day and age that Kenya’s groping in the dark for an answer seems to be closing in to fruition. You recognise, of course, that you have taken over the mantle from the indefatigable Bishop Bonifes Adoyo at a most difficult time in the life of our nation and indeed in Kenyan Christology.

For, we are witness today to something close enough to a battle of numbers between the Clergy and the State, if not a battle of wits between the Clergy and the People. And I would very well leave you alone, but that would mean that I don’t care.

But I care, Bishop Oginde, I do. For, I have known you for a long time and admired your Christian comportment from our youthful years. I was privileged to be with you as an undergraduate at the University of Nairobi. You distinguished yourself as a Christian student leader at Ufungamano. I do not blame you if you do not remember me for anything.

I have never been in the habit of distinguishing myself for anything.

So, it is just as well if you do not remember me. But you will learn that I have found a lot of comfort in your church, although I am an Anglican – at least for the time being.

There are times when I must confess, however, to a yearning for intellectual intensity and rigour in the spiritual diet that my superiors in the ACK feed me on. On such occasions, I have found that Christ is the Answer in the terraces of your shrine on Valley Road in Nairobi.

My shepherds do not like this. Indeed, some of our sermons have been devoted to reproving the restless reprobates who gallivant from post to pillar and from pillar to post, without seeming to find Christ. But you see, Bishop, we Christian congregants are not captive audiences as some senior clergymen have recently been heard to be saying. Recall that your communication with us is spiritual.

Although, therefore, we may not raise our hands to tell you, "There I think you are wrong," we still engage in silent conversation with you. When we feel that you are going beyond the pale, we decamp. That is why shrines like yours have come into existence. Some prelate at some mainline shrine misguided himself into believing that he addressed captive audiences. Before long, he was speaking to empty pews. Meanwhile, Citam was growing by leaps and bounds. And may it continue to find favour with the Lord and grow and grow.

But there is a caveat. Shrines that take the faithful for granted will shrivel. We also talk to God, we Christian faithful. We do so on our own, after the fashion our Lord taught us when he said to his disciples, "Why are you sleeping? Wake up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation" (Luke 22: 46). And we have woken up. We Kenyans have woken up. We say our prayers to God direct and we know what we want. In 2002, we knew that we wanted change. We did not want Mzee Moi and his Uhuru Project. But Mzee did not listen. He was whitewashed with his Project. Then came Mzee Kibaki in 2005. He underrated us. The rest is history. And Mzee Moi is of course courting his final political defeat.

Bishop Oginde, Kenyans have woken up. They know the difference between Roho Mtakakitu and Roho Mtakatifu. We are told that some Roho Mtakakitu money from America is doing the rounds in Kenya, to defeat the national push for a new constitutional dispensation. Bishop Oginde, have nothing to do with this Roho Mtakakitu, if it is true that he has come to Kenya with his money, lest your flock should get to Canaan without you. Remember Moses, the man who spoke to God one on one, remained in the wilderness.

Finally, in Christendom we do not preach to the converted. Rather, we say to them, like Paul of Tarsus, ‘Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.’ (Philippians 4:8). We also remind them of the greatest law of the love of God and of the Good Samaritan.

We have come far from our undergraduate years under Kanu.

Talk to God. Search your Soul. What is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy for our country? If it is admirable, excellent and praiseworthy that a mother shall die of pregnancy gone awry, won’t you say so in so many words, Bishop?

Of Kadhis’ courts we shall find some other space and time. But think of these things, Bishop, and rejoice in the Lord always. I will say again, rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is always near. And so may the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.

—The writer is a publishing editor and media consultant.

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