I stood up to Moi over misrule and paid for it, says Bishop Njenga

The provost of All Saints Cathedral Peter Njenga had concluded an Ash Wednesday service when a member of his congregation whispered to him that a group of women had stormed the halls using an alternative door and were not willing to leave.

They numbered 18 and looked harassed, hungry, irritable and dejected. It  was early 1992.

The women were mothers and wives of political detainees mostly held without trial by the administration of President Daniel arap Moi.

The provost’s first response was to go see the lot, inquire from whence they came and see if they could be persuaded to leave. He went, saw them and was filled with compassion.

The women had been kicked out Freedom Corner at Uhuru Park where they had declared a hunger strike against the Moi regime demanding that their men be released.

Police had descended on them with brutal force, armed with batons and teargas. They ran to the nearby cathedral.

The provost took it upon himself to see that the women were fed, cared for, counselled and spiritually nourished.

The women only left the church after 11 months in January 1993 when their husbands and sons were released.

Now retired, Bishop Njenga has detailed in his autobiography, The Iron Bishop: A servant of God to church and humanity, how his compassion for the women and constant criticism of Moi earned lifelong torment.

The book was launched on Thursday. Njenga retired in 2004. 

He says that though he invested his all in helping the mothers, not one of them nor their loved ones ever returned to him to thank him.

“At one point I asked Koigi Wamwere that, ‘Was it for nothing that I housed your mother for 11 straight months that you could not even come to say thank you'?” the book says.

The bishop also remembers how in the 1990s he was summoned to State House to see President Moi and to apologise for criticising his government.

The criticism referred to the demolition of a slum called Muoroto that was adjacent to Machakos country bus station in Nairobi.

Njenga had claimed that alongside then Nairobi Provincial Commissioner he witnessed seven people getting run over by bulldozers that conducted the demolition.

Njenga would go public with the accusation during his Sunday summon that weekend, harshly criticising the government for killing poor people.

The following Monday, he got a letter from the OCPD central police station, summoning him to record statement on the allegation.

"Bring the names and pictures of the seven that you claim were killed," the letter demanded.

The Bishop’s first reaction was to call the PC with whom he witnessed the tragedy and confirm if they were still aligned in the account of the events.

“The PC told me, to my consternation, that he did not know what I was talking about regarding the deaths. He claimed he did not see anything and he did not know what I meant,” he said.

He went to the station, supplied the names and told the police to do their investigations.

One of the bodies would later be exhumed from Lang'ata cemetery for reburial in Kirinyaga.

When he got to State House, Njenga met some men who urged him to apologise to the President over the issue. When the President emerged for the meeting, the provost maintained his stance and refused to apologise.

The President got so angry that he rose up in protest, picked his signature rungu and walked a way, seething in rage.

“When you see the President show that level of anger, you know all is not well,” the men told him, before starting to desert him one after another, till he remained alone in the room. He went home.

A few days later, an announcement was made that he would be investigated over the death of his wife. He was accused of killing his wife, who had died by suicide in October 1989.

The inquest is still stuck in court 33 years later.