Wednesday, September 2, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
RELIGION-KENYA: Church And State On A Collision Course
Moyiga Nduru
- Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi has accused the church in Kenya of trying to topple his government in a manner similar to the 1986 revolution in the Philippines.
Moi, who has been in power since 1978, was referring to the popular upheaval led by Cardinal Jaime L. Sin, the head of the Catholic Church in the Philippines. This uprising resulted in the fall of the late President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.
“That kind of revolution will not succeed in Kenya,” he told a group of elders in Eldoret, some 304 kilometres north west of the Kenyan capital city, Nairobi, at the weekend.
Moi’s outburst followed a call late last week by eight catholic and protestant bishops — from Anglican and Presbyterian churches — for the United States and Britain to step in and stop the current ethnic conflict in Kenya’s Rift Valley Province.
“We are urgently appealing to the international community, particularly America and Britain, which are the only foreign governments that for historical and super-power relationships and reasons, could have influence on the present government of Kenya, to bring pressure on the latter to realistically stop these murderous acts forthwith,” said a statement, read on behalf of the eight clergymen by Anglican Bishop Peter Njenga at a press conference here on Feb. 19.
The bishops told journalists that Moi’s administration lacks authority to end what they call the “politically-motivated” violence in the Rift Valley, which pits the Kikuyu — Kenya’s largest single ethnic group — against the Kalenjin, Moi’s tribe.
More than 70 people from both sides have been killed in the clashes which erupted in January, and which is now abating.
Thebishops said part of Kenya’s woes stem from the enormous powers — granted by the Kenyan constitution — that Moi wields. They urged Washington and London to put pressure on the government to commit itself to an all-party constitutional conference and draft a new constitution for Kenya.
Njenga, who is the bishop of the diocese of Mt Kenya, warned that if the constitution, drawn out during the 1962 Lancaster House Constitutional talks in London, is not amended, Kenya would plunge into a bloodbath.
“We see a situation in which Kenya could become another Rwanda, Burundi or Somalia in the not too distant future. The country is inexorably moving into that direction unless something is done, and done now, to arrest the situation,” said Njenga.
Rwanda, Burundi and Somalia have been engulfed in a cycle of civil strife which erupted in the early 1990s. Of the three countries, Rwanda, where up to one million people were slaughtered in 1994 by a pro-government militia, offers a grim pointer to what is currently happening in Kenya, the bishops said.
Their request for foreign intervention, however, has been rejected by the United States Ambassador to Kenya, Prudence Bushnell, who said Kenya was a sovereign state and that Washington has no intention of interfering in its internal affairs.
Whatever happens, Njenga said Kenya’s 30 million people should not back out of the demand for constitutional change.
“We believe that this is the right time the people of Kenya must come out clearly and state what they want. They must realise that our destiny is squarely in our own hands,” h said.
“We can either decide to destroy ourselves through our own myopic actions and behaviour as we are now doing in the Rift Valley, or we can try to solve our differences through dialogue and constructive compromise,” Bishop Njenga added.
Apart from exerting diplomatic pressure on the government, no foreign power would come to Kenya’s rescue should the country degenerate into chaos, he said. “No foreigners will help us. They will only come in to pick up the pieces, when we shall have exhaustively slaughtered ourselves,” said Njenga.
The bishops said they were prepared to play their part to bring peace to Kenya, but that they lacked financial resources to be able to make a meaningful impact.
During his meeting with the elders, Moi, himself an elder in the African Inland Church (AIC), described the clergymen as merchants of anarchy, who were betraying Christian doctrine which preaches love and harmony.
But despite Moi’s outburst, the church leaders have remained defiant. “The church will not be cowed by accusations of plotting to plunge the country into civil strife,” said Catholic Priest John Kariba.
He said on Monday that the accusations that the church was scheming to oust the government through a Philippines-type revolution was nothing to worry about since the church’s concern has been necessitated by the “suffering” of the masses.
“All that the church is seeking is peace and stability. The church wants every Kenyan to live freely in the country without any harassment.
“These are the main reasons why the church keeps reminding the government of its paramount duty of defending and protecting Kenyans,” Kariba was quoted by the ruling Kenya African National Union-owned ‘Kenya Times’ newspaper as saying on Monday.
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RELIGION-KENYA: Church And State On A Collision Course
Moyiga Nduru
- Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi has accused the church in Kenya of trying to topple his government in a manner similar to the 1986 revolution in the Philippines.
(more…)
Print
|
RELIGION-KENYA: Church And State On A Collision Course
Moyiga Nduru
- Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi has accused the church in Kenya of trying to topple his government in a manner similar to the 1986 revolution in the Philippines.
(more…)
Print
|
