06/08/2024
Why isn’t the Church speaking?
Hmmmm…. Let me console you before I tell you why….
Sooooo… sometime in the fairy days of my youth, circa 2007, we had elections coming as they usually do. Now if you are not aware, sometime in the past, Baba and Kibaki, and Ruto, and Kalonzo, and Martha, and Ngilu, and all the chiefs of government tenders were huddled together against our longest-serving president, Moi. They were bosom buddying to the hilt and they ejected Moi’s man of choice, ‘YouHuru’, out is inje! Feel free to add honorable or His excellency where deemed necessary- juu nowadays you have to select application of certain titles individually.
After Kibaki became president, we were in honeymoon period. We hit Nirvana. Kadosh kadosh! Canaan was here! SEma citizens arrest of policemen trying to collect rushwa! Sema Shilling.ke rukaing kuruka against the dollar! Kenya was out of the bushes with not a mention of violence in any polling station. CNN, BBC, CNBC, VOA, et.al was all sitting in Kibra, Mathrey, Kaniang’ware and all waiting for showbiz but lo! Kibaki and the the monks were thumping chest like gorillas and MOU’s were shuffling…. and then boom…. Periodt. Baba says he got nus-kapet of deal as Mt. Kenya mafia is showing him bum, and usurping all power. Baba, in his usual stance, moves to opposition coz you don’t tell himnyef.
Kidogo little, we is doing a constitutional review juu what? When we get a little money, we start a little project. Yash Pal was the DJ ala consti and he did a great job but by then, waters were tattered by tribalism 101- a fresh variant better than Moi’s regime could cook. Church reads foul of the constitution and joins the opposition that is just ready to reject about anything and we push the constitution back to sienda! Now we have Orange Democratic Movement and Obaks has no party juu he wasn’t looking like he wanted to party again! But Mafier du Mt Kenya make a hasty PNU and prop Baks as presidential candidate. I think Baks was the Joe Biden of our time- a bit better- but Biden nonetheless. A forceful hand was behind putting him back in pawa.
Enter 2007
Si elections come like quickly like they will come in 2027? Baba is roaring like beast of Baba and Ruto is henchmano numero uno behind him mopping up RV votes, and Obaks is shooketh in his PNU party. Ask Captain Otoyo. By 28th December 2007, we went to sleep wearing ‘Statehouse”’ pyjamas, we woke up flusterd at Orange house wearing ‘Bado mapambano’ tees as official opposition.
Eheeee…. Now, what happened, in slow-motion, was this…. Votes were being tallied as they usually are and Baba was sweeping over our souls like his rest is complete. Mombasa, Baba. Western, Baba. North Eastern, Baba. Nairobi, Baba, Nakuru, Baba-ish. Rift Valley, Babaaa! Nyanza, Nkt!!!! So we are seeing Baba pulling away from Kefaki like he is on steroids aaaall daaaay looooong…. Then we went to sleep.
NB: For purposes and intents of this writ, when I say, “We”, I mean the people of Kenya, not a party, not a tribe, not a political postulation. It is in the strong belief that the voice of the people must be heard and their vote respected and guarded by all.
Enter 29th December 2007.
Votes begin to come in slowly and we are sure… Gini wase kao- this one we have bagged! Gidi Gidi-Maji Maji had handed to the opposition one of the most formidable rallying songs, ‘Unbwogable.” Now as we are taking this, we are now singing, “Who can bwogo me in a hymnal style. One of my good friends even knew he was going to be leading chaplaincy songs in Statehouse in a di Ohangla style. Me… me I just want to see change.
(By the way, I strongly believe the script of our nation was messed up totally in 2007 by the political crass and we are simply reaping the benefits of the mangling up of our ‘Second Liberation! You take is as you may.)
Enter 5pm and suddenly, we are seeing Kefaki pulling up like Usain is not even bolting…. Then…. Tharaka nithi… wueh! G*i ndeithia, as in God help me…. Tharaka nithi my good people, is a constituency with kaodo 53k voters registered. Nithi is called up in the tallying, tallying, stay by me…. Nithi has like 153k votes for Kefaki. As in even the ancestors and the unborn voted! Orengo stands up to say something then he was not there. KPLCeee is who? Chezad the P in the KICC like a DJ and stima went. We were watching TV, then we were watching screens…. Ghafla bin vu, Orengo, awuoro, Kivuitu airlifted, GSU vacuum the KICC and we are just seeing shadows then silence, then patriotic songs….. then kidogo….. State House or is it House in a State! Kivuitu is sitting a’la muppet show, in-front of camera from Ikulu looking mersmerized and reads the results he was given. “Soma hio kitu mzee!”. Yes, he goes ahead to read the results he was given! Mah! Ang’owa??? Ati Kibaki waaat!!! Thafai. Humburger. Toothpaste. Tottenham! Minnessota Manitoba!!!! Ati whaaaaaaat???? Even before we compose, we see Justice Gicheru wiping the table and start the swearing in ceremony usiku banaaa! The swearing in was done in a huff like pick-pocketing ama abductions. People are weeping wata wata wailing all over and Baba is crying with one eye as he bays for his seat.
We is shook; Seat is took!
This, my dear brethren, was crime a la genge! Le Tiefman true. Like this was broad light, daylight thug! Halafu Martha Karua? Maagai! You guys think she is serious. After the crime, she was standing there saying how Kefaki waon fair ad squaiyaa like wite on lice! As if we can’t see crime debris strewn all over. And that, my friends, is when PEV (Post Election Violence) was born. Kenya blew up. Gen-zees of the time shikad the street without ubers, iPhones and KFC, and tesad each other like the gladiators. Kenya was cooked. I will never understand in my wildest imagination how Baba accepted for her to be her running mate and Curl-Onzo to be his henchman in the last election except that Kenya is witchcraft. These guys robbed Baba blind and stuffed his win in the bag of history. If we are to correct historic injustices in Kenya, Baba should just be given one free presidential term to rule. But who is we????
Enter Church-speak:
Sooooo, at that time, like you hear at this time, I heard a press statement by a group of pastors and bishops and popes and archbishops of Kenya on national TV as they asked for calm and other hazy ideas. The statement in essence said, “Wacheni kuwika wika mwibiwe kipoole! Stop cringing, stay calm, crime happens. We urge all Kenyans to yadda-yadda, as we work on wareva, wareva, to ensure fluff, fluff.” They made no sense to me why they didn’t call a crime of an election an electoral crime. A second, even more moribund statement, was fronted and I had it! I called my pastor and asked to be guided to the house of fluff- the gathering of men and women of cloak who could not say what needed to be said. That’s when I was introduced to the Ufungamano initiative. Kenya was impassable! We had occupied everywhere. I bid my wife good bye and let her know if I perish, she perhaps gets to marry a more handsome man anyways. So, I hit the road to Ufungamano house and met a gathering of pastors trying to make sense of the insanity that was our country. I believed I could make a difference and I met a few other young guys naïve enough, innocent enough, oh heck, foolish enough, to believe the same. We huddled as we listened to one debate and strategy after another. This, my friends, is the day I saw the underbelly of church leadership. Kumbe were the only non-mole moles in the mole-hill. People were there to represent their tribes, their interests, and their positions! Nothing more, nothing less! Who is Jesus even? Which party does he belong to?
The Burn-out:
On one day, amidst peppered conversations and frantic efforts to bring Baba to baby calm down the nation, or to get Kefaki to say the truth, we got a 411 message: “Kiambaa church burnt down with thousands of women and children inside!” What? Everything froze for a moment! Church burnt down? Women and children murdered in the sacred house of our God? We broke down into tears and prayers! After the amen!!! BOOM! One pastor shouts, “Tell your people to stop killing us!” Another echoes back, “Tell your people to come out of the seat they stole!” The banter goes to near fist-fights and I still remember the wise counsel of one Oliver Kisaka as he called for calm. A certain bishop, name withheld, shouted some pre-meditated expletives like genge-tone and I stood on a point of order. Yes sir, the whole skinny Gen-z of the 2000’s stood and called wababaz to order. I faced this guy, and to be honest, I didn’t know who he was. I said, “If we are not serious about getting a real solution here, we can as well pack up, go home, and die!” well… something of the sort. I sat down shook and one of my peers pulls at me and asks softly, “Do you know who that is?” I answered him calmly, “I don’t know but he is a piece of shnizzle for all that’s worth!” Now we are here staring at the shame that is Church leadership in the midst of the disaster that is national leadership and to be honest, none could help the other. Do you still want to know why the Church can’t speak?
After some more amorphous blubber, the banter died down to fluff, we were distributed into task groups. I went to help with media and publicity as that is what kazi for vijanas has always been. We found about 8 of us in the same action group. This group birthed Wakenya Pamoja- the song, the movement, the prayer. We were all in shock at the deadness of spirit in our pastors. On that day, I knew exactly what makes Kenya not work! The Church is only Tribe-deep! Class-deep!
Finally: Enter the Gen-z.
Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to know that Gen-z who you are now disparaging were like 3-10 year olds- watching you burn the nation with anger. Also remember these Gen-z’s are still the same ones who after observing us in 2007, burnt schools in 2017-18 while Matiang’i was breathing fireworks and could not prevail. Ti’s covid that stopped them. Remember that these Gen-z’s were the same candidates who experienced a pandemic at their most crucial exam, and had to study online like they’re in Harvard, but without the computers team digital promised them in 2012. Remember? Traumatized, lied to, abused, threatened, pandemized, and still standing, they have seen enough. They are not taking crap. Afterall, they are yet the generation that was raised by parents who said, “Sacrifice for who? If I have made it, I will eat it. If my children want stability, they can buy cement and build their own concrete plans. A generation that is gifted at ‘eating’ each other’s children till the country has turned into a whole licensed ‘sponsorgamy’. Even the economy is run on sponsonomy: As Babu Owino put it years ago, “Sponsors are part of the trickle-down-economy.” We have so impoverished our youth that they will lay it down for anything just to get a meal, a sanitary pad, a decent sleep.
Here are my unworthy conclusions:
The movement is not going away; and I truly hope it doesn’t get quenched or disparaged by the goonery of the politicians, the complacency of the parents, and the compromise of the Church. It had better not abort coz if it fails to beat these goon-z’s, we will end up in a brazen dictatorship and many more of us will disappear, justice will be a rumour, truth a myth, our economy will be ravaged, and we will have no country to bequeath the next generation. No! wait! The next generation is actually here fighting to have a country to live in. If we stop them, we will fold into a 4th world republic and all we will be doing is lindaing one mamaa after another mamaa for the who-beez as the mothers and daughters of this nation bleed on rags and feed on dregs. Our boys will be running around guarding big cars paid by their taxes only to go and sleep hungry while smelling of the cushy leather seats and debris from the massive cologne splashes of their bosses.
Do we need to know where it is going? No! Right now, the main thing is to stop what is going on! Nothing more, nothing less! That, in and of itself is as great a goal as can be achieved. Especially since the adults have refused to guide the process, they better watch it unfold rather than stand in its wake. Since the politicians have decided that what the young people are saying is give positions to the opposition, they better give all the opposition members seats so we can have all the candidates who vied get a piece of cake.
For those saying, lets wait for the elections: Remember, “Stupidity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” (Unknown).
Count how many elections we have had successively, not successfully, only to return to the same exact rut- and think again. Think about how many presidents we have had, and realize it’s not about the person but the system, the culture, the habit. But we love our stupidity. It’s effortless. It needs no thinking about. It’s least disruptive. And the crime is acceptable- especially if one of ours gets to join in the gang robbing us and the loot gets close to our home and other ‘mtu wetu’ ideologies.
I will say what I has been said from Scripture juu hatusomi hii kitu:
And it shall be: Like people, like priests. (Hosea 4:9)
The church is in a mess. Why? It is led by Kenyans. Even if we came up to speak on these matters, we will be lying to you that we are any better because we speak as Kenyans, not as Christians. I once asked a congregation, “If the entire cabinet was dissolved, including the president and deputy and all of us in this worthy congregation were picked to replace them, what would change in our country?” Silence! I know what would change though, in your parking lot, area code, dress-code, and hey, even your wife-code. But what would essentially change in our nation? See, we are in a deep existential and moral crisis- a crisis of integrity so deep that the only hope we have is for Gen-z’s to whip us out before the contract the dreaded ill. No wonder, when Gen-z ask for integrity, we are unwilling to support them at all. They ask for accountability, we are livid! Who are you to ask for such a lofty concept? When they ask for justice, we go ballistic on them. “Justice? Have you ever lived in this world? What senseless naivety is this you want display? We are the church and we don’t even believe in truth, let alone justice!” As a body of believers, that is why we can’t speak. There is injustice in our corridors. We have to be in absolute cahoots with state and they guard our messes, mistresses and excesses. The worst culprit that has held the older generations captive is the repeated, perfected, and synchronized doctrinal departure of the church from the tried and tested truth, to the unquestionable, inerrant, infallible, supreme, Fatherhood of clergy. As the priests, so the president.
