Judas' betrayal: Kenya's quest for Paradise and the lessons to be learnt this Easter season

Nakuru Diocese Bishop Cleophas Oseso leads Catholic faithful from Christ the King Cathedral during the Way of the Cross procession through the streets of Nakuru City on April 18, 2025. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard] The Christian Easter season reminds us of the elusive search for the ideal universe. Ultimately, it is a universe that holds certain institutions in society in sacred esteem. It governs itself in line with the established norms and order. Straying from the order invites chaotic turmoil and suffering. Hence, Easter comes fully loaded with significant lessons for the secular world that we live in. What, in the Kenyan context, would be the wider relevance of the Easter experience? The most obvious mirror is the quest for paradise, even a human paradise on earth. Does the loss of the ideal universe in the biblical book of Genesis parallel the loss of the African dream, the independent nation that our founders nursed in the 1950s and in the '60s, as our perfect world? Over six decades ago, African nationalists dreamt of independent states and nations as our golden Eldorado. Captured in our national anthems that were coined at the time, these people's dreams were big. Yet, like the pristine universe in the biblical Genesis, did the dreams begin crumbling soon after the ink that wrote the charters of independence began drying, consequently making the search for future salvation inevitable? The 17th Century English poet John Milton immortalised the Genesis fall in his 1667/1674 epic poem, Paradise Lost. Paradise is the poet's rendition of the betrayal, by Adam and Eve, of the ordered universe. This betrayal leads to their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, as is rendered in the Bible. In Milton's poem, Satan and his fallen angels are cast into hell, following their rebellion against God. But they also leave this paradise with the promise of salvation, through Christ. Milton telescopes this experience into about ten thousand lines of fine verse. The Holy Bible unfolds the experience through dozens of books, from Genesis to Revelation, with a lessons' galore, from history, the law, and sundry activities by kings and prophets of the Israelites of old. The crown of it all is the coming of the Messiah, who is foretold by the prophets, but whom they must kill as the gateway to salvation. "He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed." (Isaiah 53:3-5). In Christendom, restoration of the perfect universe is anticipated through the tragedy of the Christian cross. Yet, it is not a universal salvation as such. For, the promised new paradise is not a group affair. Salvation or damnation will follow individuals, based on their own free will in the choices they make, and the things they do. Hence, Satan infamously says in line 263 of Book One of Paradise Lost, "Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven." His will to act independently prefers rebellion to submission to divine authority. It is an individual choice, whose good or bad rewards shall also be individually meted out. In the fullness of time, the reward for the Christian choice to submit to divine authority is also individual. The perfect universe is not for everybody, it is individualized, according to the choices made. This is in stark contrast with the paradise that we seek in the universal space that we live in, in this earthly life. We dream of great things in the here and now, few of which, unfortunately, ever come our way. Look at the Kenyan national anthem, for example. This is a psalm of hope. An ambitious dream. It is the clearest expression of the collective Kenyan vision, by the founders of the elusive nation in 1963. The ink of the Kenyan anthem spoke of a God fearing nation. It acknowledged God as the creator of everything, just as in the Genesis story, "Oh, God of all Creation." It besought Him of group blessings, "Bless this our land and nation." Then it went on to paint different facets of our perfect dream world. A blessed land, in which justice was the shield and defender. A place of unity, peace and liberty, with plenty within its borders. Was this the Kenyan parallel to the Garden of Eden before the rebellion and the fall? Why, the dream even went on to paint portraits of citizens whose hearts were collectively strong and true, striving to serve, "Service be our earnest endeavour." We could say many more things, about building the nation together, through hard work that rewards us with pride, and "the glory of Kenya (and) the fruit of our labour fill(ing) every heart with thanks giving." But like God's paradise in Genesis, we fell. It has often been asked of us, "When did the rain start beating us?" The honest answer would be that the rain began thrashing us soon after we got into the house! In this case, the house of independence! As in the Easter story, independence came with greed, lies, and betrayal. But it also came with rebellion at the very top. For, is rebellion at the very top simply not holding institutions and the law in contempt by those privileged to hold high office? Does not the kind of impunity and disdain for the law that is often displayed by the people at the very top amount to rebellion against the established order? What shape in Christendom does rebellion take? Does it appear to be most in idolatry? Even amateur biblical exegesis points to rebellion against God as the biggest problem in the Christian holy writ. Persons who go against God, as the highest institution and authority, establish alternative deities. In the very earliest passages, Moses returns from the Mountain to discover that his brother Aaron has been forced to make a molten calf as the new god for the Israelites. "They said to Aaron, 'Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses, who brought us out of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.'" We read in Exodus 32:7. "Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol, cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.'" And we read further about what Moses was told. " They are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation." The Israelite Exodus and rebellion against divine authority are a recurrent joint theme that must inevitably lead to the Easter Season. In 1 Samuel 18, the people ask the Prophet Samuel to give them a king to rule over them, as in other nations. God is unhappy, but allows them to have their way, after the Miltonian free will. Samuel, too, is unhappy at this request. But God says to Samuel: "Listen to what they are saying to you. It is not you they have rejected. They have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you." In a later age, the Prophet Hosea echoes God's voice with the message: "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images." (Hosea 11:1). Ours is the law. Simply put, the rule of law, the Constitution, and constitutionalism. Yet, we must run away from the established order all the time, even as we invoke it. The Government will deny the people the right to their constitutional freedom of assembly, or expression, and still invoke elements of the law in the process. They will mobilize State violence to disperse a peaceful gathering and say it is the law. But this is, in point of fact, the more benign offensive against institutions. In the viler performance, the President will form what he calls a broad-based government, in utter disregard of what the Constitution says about how government shall be formed. Legislators will thereafter go out to every rooftop, to threaten with impeachment anybody who lifts a finger against this illegality. A praise and worship political brigade is born. It praises the President William Ruto government to the high heavens. Opposition ministers who serve in the Ruto government tell the world how they are going to give him a second term, whether Kenyans want it or not. Such is rebellion against the governing institutions. Society gets to the place that the poet William Butler Yeats had in mind when he penned the famous lines, "The falcon cannot hear the falconer. Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold." In the poem The Second Coming, these pithy lines speak symbolically to loss of order and control in society. Humankind, or the falcon, no longer respects the guiding principles and traditions (the falconers) that hold them together. William Ruto is the President of Kenya, for example, a falcon who should respect the falconer (the law). The only thing he fears, however, is that Mr. Raila Odinga could lead violent protests against him, over public grievances. He designs to tame and appease Mr Odinga through breaking the law in an Odinga-friendly manner. He will invite his nemesis into a co-presidency. Together, they will form a broad-based conspiracy against the people and the law. That way, he will end the street protests. He will thereafter be free to get away with anything he wishes. And his foremost defenders will come from Mr Odinga's corner of the broad-based conspiracy. We read in WB Yeats about the rest of the unfolding scenario, after this defiance and desecration of our institutions: ". . . somewhere in sands of the desert, A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it, Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds." Something sinister is unfolding. Even the very best learned lawyers and legislators, like Mr Peter Kaluma, lose their heads. Together with others, like John Mbadi and Opiyo Wandayi, they are the "reeling shadows of indignant desert birds." They strut all about the broad-based pitiless creature, that is President Ruto, with a lion body; and Mr Odinga with the head of a man. WB Yeats' broad-based animal has "a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun." The poet says that this broad-based creature is "slouching towards Bethlehem to be born." Some would say it is already born. That is why we see it and are even able to describe it, to the minute detail of its blank and pitiless gaze. But if it menacingly slouches towards Bethlehem to be born, the implication can only mean that it heralds something more sinister; something to be completely frightful is about to happen. Is lawlessness about to multiply? Yeats says, "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." Fortunately, there is also the Second Coming, after which Yeats titled his famous poem. In Christendom, the belief holds that Christ will come again. The mystery of faith is proclaimed in most formal Christian worship services. "Christ has died, Christ is alive, Christ will come again." The first coming pertained to Christ's ministry on earth. Its climax was his crucifixion and resurrection, which Christians are observing this weekend. Then, of course, there was the ascension, forty days post-resurrection; and which we read of in the Acts of the Apostles and in the writings of St Paul of Tarsus. The Second Coming of Christ, also known as the Second Advent, or the Parousia, has foundation in the prophecies of the Messiah, in the Old Testament. Christ will return to establish the ultimate perfect universe. According to the Prophet Isaiah (2:4), "He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples. And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." It has been 2,025 years since the ascension, and Christendom is still waiting for the Second Coming. Meanwhile the universe only deteriorates steadily. This is despite all the learning and advancement in technology. The Digital Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is rife with some of the most violent excesses in human history. From xenophobia and White racist supremacism in America, to far right extremism against foreigners in Western Europe, all speak to regression in civilization. In China, they have probably manufactured germs in laboratories to wreak havoc of the Covid kind. In Africa, life is lived almost as if it was the anarchist's paradise. Governments behave like organized gangster movements. They have chief gangsters, each with their praise and worship teams. Laws and institutions do not count for anything in the DRC, the Central African Republic, in the Sudan, Chad, the Cameroons, and diverse parts of the continent. Even countries that put on shows of democratic governance like Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are basically foils to civilized living. Institutions like Parliament and the Judiciary are captive hostages to the Executive. Indignant political birds sing sinister songs around sovereigns. They propose extensions of presidential terms, and others even removal. While all this goes on, the big men stash away trillions from public coffers, for paying off the indignant birds for their songs. The notion of even a simple earthly second coming recedes steadily on the horizon of hope. Christendom itself suggests, however, that things must get worse before they could get better. Mathew 24:12-14 talks of religious deceptions, wars and rumours of wars, and of earthquakes, pandemics, famines and a general collapse in the social order as curtain raisers to the Second Coming. Taken outside the literal context, it is an invitation to reflect on the resilience that must inform the search for the good universe. It may not necessarily be a perfect universe. However, to achieve even a barely tolerable universe requires sacrifice and the taking of both verbal and non-verbal blows. Everyone will carry the cross on the steep hill to Calvary if the good universe shall be realised. Experience teaches us, however, that mockers and naysayers abound. They will watch, throw snide remarks (save yourself and save us), and adorn your head with a crown of thorns. It is not until it is finished (John 19:30), that they will realize that "Truly, this man was the Son of God." (Matthew 27:54). Mercifully, 2,000 years later they will still be worshiping Christ. Dr Muluka is a political commentator

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