Pulpit as a Forum for the Restoration of Government

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Prefa­tory Con­tex­tual Remarks

Rev. Njoya attacked by police

Kenya
Post-colonial Kenya saw its first direct elec­tions in 1957. The Kenya African National Union (KANU) formed a gov­ern­ment just before Kenya assumed inde­pen­dence in Decem­ber 1963. KANU ruled under a sin­gle party con­sti­tu­tion from 1964 to 2002, with just two pres­i­dents: Jomo Keny­atta (1964–78) and Daniel arap Moi (1978–2002). The regime was gen­er­ally regarded as unde­mo­c­ra­tic and in vio­la­tion of human rights, par­tic­u­larly through the sup­pres­sion of polit­i­cal dis­sent. In 2002, the new National Rain­bow Coali­tion (NARC) won the pres­i­dency, mark­ing a free elec­tion and sig­nif­i­cant turn­ing point for the country.

Tim­o­thy Njoya
From the pul­pit to the streets where he has joined like-minded Kenyans in peace­ful demon­stra­tion, Rev. Njoya has con­stantly demanded free­dom from the polit­i­cal dic­ta­tor­ship in Kenya. This has not been with­out a sharp and intim­i­dat­ing response from the Kenyan author­i­ties, who have often accused Rev. Njoya of sub­ver­sion. Fol­low­ing a ser­mon in Octo­ber 1986, the Pres­i­dent accused him of pro­duc­ing sub­ver­sive pam­phlets in the guise of Sun­day ser­mons. His out­spo­ken­ness has often resulted in deten­tion with­out trial.

On July 7, 1997 while at a pro-democracy gath­er­ing at the All Saints Cathe­dral in Nairobi, the police forcibly invaded the Cathe­dral, badly injur­ing Rev. Njoya, among oth­ers. On June 10, 1999, while at a pro-democracy pro­ces­sion out­side Par­lia­ment in Nairobi, Rev. Njoya was the vic­tim of a mer­ci­less beat­ing from a pri­vate army hired by state oper­a­tives. He was bru­tal­ized while the police stood by and watched.

In his efforts to cre­ate a cul­ture of free­dom, jus­tice and equal­ity in Kenya, Rev. Njoya has had to take on not only the mighty mono­lith that is the state in Kenya but also the church, from where he has been var­i­ously dis­owned at crit­i­cal moments.
– The Inter­na­tional Cen­ter for Human Rights and Demo­c­ra­tic Devel­op­ment

Pul­pit as a Forum for the Restora­tion of Government

“When the right­eous are in author­ity, the peo­ple rejoice; but when the wicked rule, the peo­ple groan.” Photo by Simon Cataudo.

In Kenya, the civil soci­ety abdi­cated its stew­ard­ship of gov­er­nance to the gov­ern­ment, and the gov­ern­ment failed to become gov­ern­ment. These fail­ures were preach­ing events in which the pul­pit became the forum rais­ing demo­c­ra­tic aware­ness about the lack of democ­racy in our soci­ety. These events awak­ened Kenyans to know that their faith could help to estab­lish a car­ing, sus­tain­ing, and nur­tur­ing sys­tem of gov­er­nance in which the gov­ern­ment would see human beings in the same light as God sees them—unlike the gov­ern­ment inher­ited from colo­nial­ism, which saw soci­ety as cheap or worth­less capital.

At the time, though, the church did not have a faith by which to artic­u­late the whole Gospel. The ser­mons filled this vac­uum by expound­ing faith as the con­text in which all other con­texts are changed. They com­mu­ni­cated ideas and issues so wor­thy of national and inter­na­tional debate that they pro­voked the church and the gov­ern­ment to jus­tify their existence.

A ‘Sub­ver­sive’ Ser­mon
On July 8, 1984, I preached a ser­mon on the Gospel of Luke, appeal­ing to peo­ple to pray for out­casts. When Par­lia­ment returned from recess,

Mr. Sifuna rose and told the speaker, Mr. Fred Mati, he had an impor­tant com­mu­ni­ca­tion to make. He said that on July 8, 1984, the Rev. [Njoya] of the Pres­by­ter­ian Church of East Africa (PCEA), deliv­ered a ser­mon on radio and tele­vi­sion, mak­ing extremely per­turb­ing state­ments… [Rev. Njoya] said some quar­ters of the press seem to rejoice at the suf­fer­ing of another Kenyan. He asked the pres­i­dent to invite, as Jesus did, the lost sheep… and release those in deten­tion, to invite Ngugi wa Thiong’o [Kenyan author impris­oned by the gov­ern­ment and iden­ti­fied by Amnesty Inter­na­tional as a pris­oner of con­science] back to the coun­try. (The Nation, July 19, 1984, p. 1).

In response, the Min­istry imposed a ban on live broad­cast and began cen­sor­ing ser­mons before they aired on the radio or tele­vi­sion in order to avoid the trans­mis­sion of “sub­ver­sive” ones. By that evening, tech­ni­cians from the Min­istry of Infor­ma­tion and Broad­cast­ing had ripped from the walls of the church the pub­lic address sys­tem con­nect­ing the church with the voice of Kenya. When the Min­is­ter of Broad­cast­ing defended my rights to pray, he lost his job.

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The civil soci­ety abdi­cated its stew­ard­ship of gov­er­nance to the gov­ern­ment, and the gov­ern­ment failed to become gov­ern­ment. These fail­ures were preach­ing events in which the pul­pit became the forum rais­ing demo­c­ra­tic aware­ness about the lack of democ­racy in our soci­ety.
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The Min­is­ter of the State explained that the gov­ern­ment had always allowed the church to wor­ship with­out inter­fer­ence because the church had con­fined itself to just that: wor­ship. He added that wor­ship must be “com­pli­men­tary to the gov­ern­ment poli­cies and aspi­ra­tions, in the inter­est of law and order.” So, he said, “Rev. Njoya went beyond the lim­its and inter­fered with gov­ern­ment actions. His preach­ing was not in keep­ing with the spirit of peace, love, and unity” (The Nation, July 20, 1984).

On Fri­day, July 20, 1984, the Sec­re­tary Gen­eral of the PCEA tele­phoned me and demanded a copy of the ser­mon. I imme­di­ately drove to his office and sat silently as he read the text. I asked him, “Isn’t that Luke’s the­ol­ogy about Jesus?” He furi­ously showed me the door and said, “Go back to your work while I think of the answer.” In a few hours time, the Sec­re­tary Gen­eral entered my office and deliv­ered me a let­ter. I offered him a seat and he refused. He watched me read the let­ter. My lips shook as I read. I sweated and devel­oped a migraine before read­ing the last para­graph. The let­ter asked me to move out of the church. I was instantly dis­missed and another min­is­ter was brought in to take my place.

This hit me harder than my con­flict with Par­lia­ment. How would I feed my fam­ily? I knelt down and prayed for an hour.

The Sec­re­tary General’s press state­ment declared, “Pul­pits are for the Good News and not for polit­i­cal motives… Pas­tors who mis­use pul­pits or their licenses for ill motives will be doing so at their own risk” (The Nation, July 21, 1984). But when the deci­sion went before the full Pres­bytery, the Gen­eral Sec­re­tary had the shock of his life. The Pres­bytery asked an elder from my con­gre­ga­tion to read the script of my ser­mon. After he fin­ished, every­body except the two Head Office offi­cials shouted, a-a-a-men. The elder from Mom­basa stood up and said, “The Pres­by­ter­ian Church gets its the­ol­ogy and gov­ern­ment from the Bible and the Holy Spirit, not from the State.”

That day, the Nairobi Pres­bytery did not let the civil soci­ety down by endors­ing the Head Office’s shoot-your-wounded-soldier atti­tude. The Pres­bytery stood by me.

Some Con­text: Can sub­ver­sion come from the house of God?
What you need to under­stand is that the Baba Taifa had ruled Kenya for thirty years. Kenya, dur­ing and after colo­nial­ism, had never cre­ated a forum for open debate in the gov­ern­ment. When JM Kar­iuki wanted to intro­duce debate in Par­lia­ment, ask­ing why Kenya should become a coun­try of ten mil­lion­aires and ten mil­lion des­ti­tute, he was picked up by police within the precincts of Par­lia­ment and mur­dered. Hence, by default, debate in Kenya began in the pulpit.

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By that evening, tech­ni­cians from the Min­istry of Infor­ma­tion and Broad­cast­ing had ripped from the walls of the church the pub­lic address sys­tem con­nect­ing the church with
the voice of Kenya.
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What you also need to under­stand is that when the British, Bel­gian, Ital­ian, Span­ish, French, Dutch, and Ger­man gov­ern­ments appor­tioned Africa to each other (in the 1884 Berlin Con­fer­ence), Mar­itime Trade and not democ­racy was the prime mover. When the wind of change came and Africa had to be inde­pen­dent, nation­al­ism and impe­ri­al­ism bro­kered con­sti­tu­tions with­out par­tic­i­pa­tion by the pop­u­lace. Inde­pen­dence was mere cer­e­mo­nial arrange­ment. No thought was given to women’s rights or self-determination. The new con­sti­tu­tion sim­ply con­firmed colo­nial laws which treated Africans as sub-human, soul-bearing objects and women as men’s prop­erty. The church and the gov­ern­ment got used to think­ing that cre­ativ­ity, debate, and the ques­tion­ing of the sta­tus quo were expres­sions of sin and insurrection.

To this point, Pres­i­dent Moi (Pres­i­dent of Kenya, 1978–2002) once asked, “How could sub­ver­sive doc­u­ments come from the house of God?”

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