Clerical calls to action should not be incitement to anarchy
Opinion
By
Leonard Khafafa
| Dec 10, 2025
Kenyan churches were once venerated institutions presumed to embody the country’s moral and ethical compass. Figures such as Bishop Nding’i Mwana a’Nzeki, did not hesitate to speak truth to power. Others like Bishops David Gitari, Alexander Muge and Henry Okullu routinely unsettled the State House with their sermons. Timothy Njoya, ever the clerical gadfly, made a habit of pricking the consciences and egos of the ruling elite, sparring openly with wayward officialdom.
That era, it seems, has long passed.
Kenya’s churches now strain to retain their relevance. Many have drifted into a tawdry spectacle of gimmickry, marketed as avenues for spiritual and material uplift but, in practice, serving chiefly to enrich the “prophets and seers” who preside over them.
To be sure, a quiet cadre of sincere Christian ministers continues to do the Lord’s work faithfully. Yet their efforts are increasingly drowned out by the clamour of ubiquitous televangelists, whose preferred liturgy involves extracting meagre coins from hapless followers in exchange for both literal and figurative promises of pie in the sky.
In recent months, a cohort of church ministers, seemingly eager to reclaim a measure of lost relevance, has taken to chastising the government with growing fervour. Their latest broadside, however, betrays a striking detachment from contemporary realities.
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Unlike their predecessors of the 1980s and 1990s, whose criticisms were rooted in genuine grievance and moral conviction, this new clerical chorus has aligned itself with the anti-establishment fringe, echoing its refrains with disconcerting enthusiasm.
The result is a blend of half-truths and florid exaggerations, rhetoric that might be dismissed as theatrical were it not for its capacity to sow discord in an already fragile national climate.
Sample this: the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) has delivered a sharp rebuke to President William Ruto’s administration, accusing it, among other alleged failings, of “mistreating the youth.”
In a statement issued in Limuru last week, the clerical body charged the government with presiding over an “unbearable” rise in the cost of living and, according to media reports, went so far as to urge young Kenyans to rise up against what it described as “a failed administration.”
The NCCK’s pronouncements wilt under the weight of readily available facts. To begin with, it is broadly accepted that the Ruto administration assumed office amid dire fiscal circumstances, the legacy years of unrestrained public borrowing.
Unlike several of its regional peers, however, the government has steered clear of the perils of sovereign default, an achievement reflected in standard measures of fiscal stewardship.
Inflation has been reined in and nudged back within the central bank’s target.
The shilling, long a source of anxiety, has steadied at roughly 130 to the dollar. Fuel prices have ceased their vertiginous climb and state-supported efforts to bolster food production are at last yielding quantifiable gains.
The Stanbic Bank Kenya Purchasing Managers Index further repudiates the NCCK’s claims of a failed administration. It says, “firms in Kenya resumed hiring in November buoyed by the strongest private sector activity performance since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
A clerical call to action must be driven by a genuine desire to resolve grievances through legitimate channels. It should never be uniformed utterances that border on incitement to anarchy.
The writer is a public policy analyst