After forty two days on the road with the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission across the Rift Valley, I am more certain than ever that organized Church in Kenya holds the key to the region's and country’s future. This is because mainstream congregations have had a history of peace-building and social development in the region, going as far back as the earliest indigenous and colonial missionary ventures among local communities.
In the North Rift, for instance, the National Council of Churches of Kenya engaged in community organising which sought to reconcile pastoralist communities in the area, draw them from the nihilist culture of mutual theft and death, and thrust them into the increasingly globalized nation-state.
The Church’s first entry point in reconstructing the Kenyan state lies in its history, legacy and extensive networks in the Rift Valley. The second entry point lies in its very membership which, over time, has oscillated between being either perpetrators or victims of historical injustices and related crimes against humanity.
With few exceptions, many who appeared before the TJRC were Christians, seeking truth and justice over violations meted out by fellow Christians. Followed to the letter, the Good Book would have required such individuals and communities to process their concerns from within the Church, obviating the need for “outside” intervention.
In this respect, I’ll never forget the continuing stories of Sitatunga, Maridadi and Liyavo Co-operative societies, all three from Trans Nzoia County. They bring together several peasant families, all of which got land from founding President Jomo Kenyatta in November 1972.
In the particular case of Sitatunga, part of this elite is decidedly Christian, and every bit sound in doctrine. Living alongside this elite are 100 families who lost out in the dangerous affair that land is in Kenya.When the TJRC came calling at the Kitale Museum last month and briefly called Brig. (Rtd) Lazarus Sumbeiywo to the witness stand, the Sitatunga families thronged the venue in large numbers.
How the TJRC ends up sorting out the Sitatunga situation, as indeed similar cases around the country, will no doubt be most-watched by many. Already, it’s being asked how the nation’s Christian piety can sustain an abiding liberation gospel while overlooking instances in which either its membership or the institution of the Church itself is in the crosshairs of Kenya’s land question. It’s also being asked how, with its stand on the constitutional debate last year, the Church can credibly respond to emerging issues.
In my view, responsible Christian action calls for a theology that will challenge existing assumptions about the Church, characterize such a challenge in essentially sound Biblical thinking, and secure justice for the region’s poor, widows and orphans. Responsible Christian action also calls for a Church leadership that will identify with the poor, and nudge the society’s wealthy and mighty to build a more caring and inclusive nation.
Responsible Christian action also calls for individual Christianity that will acknowledge the nation’s broken material and moral order, and seek to exert a positive, redeeming influence on people, ideas and structures in society. The Church has the immediate task of starting to look ahead and rising up to its own gospel. To do this, the organized Church will have to combine personal holiness with social justice that will resonate with the majority poor: anything short of that will be a sad commentary on the country’s strained moral compass.
The writer is a media consultant (www.jesse-masai.com ).
