Raila to clergy: Lead us to Canaan by supporting BBI, wheelbarrow not solution

ODM leader Raila Odinga has called on the church to lead the country to the promised land - Canaan - by supporting the Building Bridges Initiative reforms.

This even as he fought off assertions by his critics that he does not believe in God.

The former Prime Minister said the BBI is the sure route to deliver Kenyans to the promised land and called on the church to guide the nation towards that direction by backing the initiative.

"I appeal to you to be the Moses and Joshua and lead Kenyans from the wilderness .... and get us to Canaan," Raila said during a meeting with religious leaders at Ufungamano House in Nairobi on Thursday.

The ODM boss urged the leaders to rally their flock behind the intended reforms, saying it is the only sure way the country's challenges will be resolved.

"I believe you will find no joy when your children go to school only to be told there are no jobs and only wheelbarrows are available," he said.

He said BBI will solve the perennial chaos that has rocked the nation every election, curb corruption, resolve the problems of joblessness and restore our ethos.

"The solution to corruption cannot be corruption. The solution to joblessness cannot be the wheelbarrow. BBI has nothing against the church," he said.

"I believe the church will find no joy in burying their members every election year," he said.

Raila reiterated that he is a God-fearing man contrary to claims by his political nemesis that he is not.

"When I was in prison, the bible and the Quran provided by the prison chaplain and occasional letters from my wife are all I had," he said.

"I had the King James Version in three languages. I also read the Quran from front to back and back again," he added.

However, Raila challenged the church not be used as channels of money laundering.