Bishop David Oginde is an interesting man of the cloth. In an Op/Ed in the Sunday Standard (Let's re-register real Kenyans, and boost national security, 11/05/14), he makes a strong case for current efforts by the National Executive to deal with the problem of illegal aliens and terrorism. Dr Dr Oginde recalls the efforts of the church in 2003 to persuade the NARC government of the risks posed with the continued failure by the government to police its border, to deal with the corruption in the immigration department and to allowing black money to flood the financial system. Dr Oginde celebrates the prescience of the church; all that they had predicted has come to pass.
In the olden days, such as they were in Kenya during the colonial era and the forty-year KANU interregnum, the church played a critical role in Kenya. It was the principle non-state provider of basic education, primary healthcare and social security for orphans, the weak and the infirm. Especially during the colonial era, the church formed an uneasy partnership with the the colonial administration; there are a few survivors who still recollect with bitterness the church's whitewashing of the atrocities of the colonial administration during the Emergency.
The church in Kenya came of age during the political agitations of the late Eighties. Kenyans owe a debt of gratitude that will never be repaid to the men of the cloth like Henry Okullu, Alexander Kipsang Muge and Timothy Njoya who were prepared to risk their lives for the ideals of political freedom. President Moi tried and failed to co-opt the church.
But even during the darkest periods of the Eighties, Kenya still played host to significant populations of refugees from Uganda, Ethiopia, the Sudan and Somalia. The church was deeply involved in dealing with the challenges of the refugee populations hosted in Kenya. The church never considered them as security threats; instead, in the spirit of love, the church offered what assistance it could. This began to change when the church was finally co-opted into the agendas of political parties following the 2002 general election. What Moi had failed to do by fiat, Mwai Kibaki accomplished by stealth.
The church is now a political player and it has engaged itself less and less in the business of the church and more and more in the business of the state. It has become a competitor in the market place, competing with "foreigners" (which has long been a code-word for Muslims). It is in this context that we must examine Dr Oginde's call for the "re-registration of real Kenyans." It is why the church has not joined calls condemning the "xenophobic and tribalistic" targetting of ethnic Kenyan-Somalis on suspicion of being in the country illegally or being involved in terrorism. It is why the church is worried about the influx of "illegal" money used to purchase real estate that threatens to "make us landless in our own country." The church does not want "Muslims" to enjoy freedoms it has enjoyed since before Independence; and it wishes to keep everyone out of the areas it has enjoyed pre-eminence though it no longer does what churches normally should do.
Dr Oginde and "the church" have completely lost their humanity. "The church" has become a business. Its principle job, it seems, is to amass and amass in the midst of penury and want. It will engage in PR and CSR, but in actual fact, "the church" in Kenya takes more than it gives. It is the mirror image of the government it has always held to account. The only difference between the two is that the government doesn't hypocritically hide its true nature. When the scales fall from our eyes, it might be too late to hold Dr Oginde or the church to account for falling so far from the glory of God.
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