Religion and Politics in Kenya: Essays in Honor of a Meddlesome Priest PDF
Preview Religion and Politics in Kenya: Essays in Honor of a Meddlesome Priest
Religion and Politics in Kenya Religion and Politics in Kenya Essays in Honor of a Meddlesome Priest Edited by Ben Knighton religion and politics in kenya Copyright © Ben Knighton, 2009. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-61487-1 All rights reserved. First published in 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States - a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-37861-6 ISBN 978-0-230-10051-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230100510 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data. Religion and politics in Kenya : essays in honor of a meddlesome priest. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Christianity and politics–Kenya–History–20th century. 2. Christianity and politics– Kenya–History–21st century. 3. Religion and politics–Kenya–History–20th century. 4. Religion and politics–Kenya–History–21st century. 5. Gitari, David M.–Political and social views. 6. Anglican Church of Kenya–History. 7. Kenya–Church history. 8. Kenya–Religion. 9. Kenya–Politics and government–1963-1978. 10. Kenya–Politics and government–1978-2002. I. Knighton, Ben. BR1443.K4R45 2009 322’.109676209045–dc22 2009003949 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Macmillan Publishing Solutions. First edition: September 2009 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To Wanja, Rachel Nyawira, Charis Makena, Joel Munene, and Rosh Murimi Contents List of Tables and Figures ix Preface and Acknowledgments xi Abbreviations xv Notes on the Contributors xix 1 Introduction: Strange but Inevitable Bedfellows 1 Ben Knighton I The Religious Background to Politics in Kenya 55 2 Compromised Critics: Religion in Kenya’s Politics 57 John Lonsdale 3 Faith Engaging Politics: The Preaching of the Kingdom of God 95 Paddy Benson II The Bishop Meddling in Politics 121 4 “Was There No Naboth to Say No?” Using the Pulpit in the Struggle for Democracy: The Anglican Church, Bishop Gitari, and Kenyan Politics 123 Galia Sabar 5 Meddling on to 2008: Is There Any Relevance for Gitari’s Model in the Aftermath of Ethnic Violence? 143 Julius Gathogo 6 The Church and Islam: VyamaVingi (Multipartyism) and the Ufungamano Talks 155 John Chesworth III The Churches’ Involvement in Contemporary Issues 181 7 The NCCK and the Struggle Against ”Ethnic Clashes” in Kenya 183 Jacqueline Klopp viii Contents 8 Christianity Co-opted 201 Paul Gifford 9 Muingiki Madness 223 Ben Knighton Bibliography 251 Index 281 List of Tables and Figures Tables 1.1 Religious Affiliations in Kenya, 1970–2025 41 6.1 Results of the Referendum for Each Province 175 9.1 Market Share of Kenyan National Newspapers 228 Figures 1.1 Bishop Gitari conducting a service of confirmation and communion at St. Andrew’s Church, Kabare, on 3 April 1994 15 1.2 President Moi speaking at Kitale stadium at the enthronement of Bishop Stephen Kewasis by Archbishop Gitari on 20 July 1997 34 6.1 An Orange rally led by Musyoka Kalonzo, now Vice-President, at Kapenguria, Transnzoia District, on 10 October 2005 175 Preface and Acknowledgments First of all, I must thank all the contributors to this volume, without whom it would not have been possible. All of them have long experi- ence of Kenya and have published in the area of this topic before, as the bibliography bears witness. They have endured my editing with great fortitude and support. Special thanks are due to John Lonsdale, who committed himself early to a large contribution and gave me some very helpful advice. A joint paper by two Kenyans was to have been included, but given the emotionally disturbing events in their home country during 2008, it is not surprising that they were not able to produce their chapter in the end. Between them, the contributors have set out an intriguing balance of tensions, for each part presents a case for and against the contribution of religions in Kenyan politics—for them making a valuable difference on behalf of people and nation or for them being sucked in to the venality and elitism of state politics. It is left to the reader to learn and decide from this appropriate dialectic. Are the churches compromised and co-opted or are they reforming and transforming politics? In which direction is the trend now moving? Of course a religion that was not rooted in contemporary culture would not have the leverage to affect it, but a church that has lost its saltiness will not stop the rot. Where is the balance to be drawn and who is to regulate it? Again this book would not have happened but for the “famous four” Protestant clergy, who put their heads above the parapet when many refused to do so and faced the onslaught of the powers that be. There are all too few in their own denominations and in Africa who have had such a ministry as Henry Okullu, David Gitari, Timothy Njoya, and Alexander Muge. Gitari’s Episcopal Roman Catholic contemporary, Archbishop Ndingi Mwana’a Nzeki, also deserves a mention, though I personally never had the opportunity to enter his sphere during my nine-year service of the Anglican church in East Africa. Between them they have made a difference in Kenya’s history, especially when compared xii Preface and Acknowledgments with Uganda’s. Each had a burning concern arising out of their faith that justice be done in the world, which transcended personal ambition or gain. They knowingly risked much, and in a different time or place, could have paid a higher penalty than they did. Many would say that Muge paid the highest price with his early death on the road. While the book is centered on issues and processes rather than personalities, the topic’s focus is given by the work of the former archbishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya, David Gitari, who of the four has had the longest-running influence and the most structural. Though he retired in 2002, the contributors have taken their analysis forward to the trau- matic events of 2008. I am particularly grateful to David Gitari and the Church Mission Society for giving me seven years in which to watch this process at close quarters and to encourage it in a younger genera- tion of clergy who are yet to rise to the top, though several have already become bishops or doctors of the church. The dearth of prophecy will not be forever. I am grateful to those former students, and others who knew me less, for enabling my access to rich oral evidence, though not much of it has been brought into this book. I heartily thank the sometime members of St Andrew’s College, Kabare, particularly my faithful colleague Justus Mbogo, for energizing my activity in Kenya and for their welcome on my repeated returns since. In producing the book, I was helped by Caroline Mose, now embarked on her doctoral studies in University College, London, who performed some copyediting work. Thanks are due to Luba Ostashevsky, Colleen Lawrie, Laura Lancaster, and the production team of Palgrave Macmillan for selecting this project, holding on to it, and enabling its completion. The Oxford Centre for Mission Studies allowed me reading time and its library resources for me to continue my education in the topic of this book while being employed by them. My students there may have found us discussing Kenyan affairs not directly related to their research topic. Above all I must give gratitude to the one who led me most unexpectedly to Africa in the first place, through the agency of Philip Price and John Stott, obliging me to attend to, and so to understand, the other. The African Studies Centre in the University of Oxford, where my wife, Wanja, serves as Administrator, has attracted many “Kenyanists” over the last decade to Oxford. They are represented by name in the bibliography, but their ideas have been an aural stimulant of the highest quality! Last, but no means least, I express my appreciation to my family who bore most of the cost of this nocturnal vigil. If they read this book,
The list of books you might like
