What Kenya Kwanza Leaders Have Stopped Doing After Their Major Win

In the run-up to the August 2022 General Election, President William Ruto, his deputy Rigathi Gachagua and the Kenya Kwanza Brigade branded themselves friends of the Church.

This was evident in their rallies and also after their election win, when they organised and led prayer sessions in a number of counties.

However, a year after they took power, the bromance between the Kenya Kwanza administration and the Church seems to be waning. 

After visiting most of the Kenya Kwanza-leaning counties, they have slowed down the prayer rallies.

Political observers say relations between a section of the clergy and the government are becoming increasingly strained, especially over issues of governance, the soaring cost of living and economic recovery policies.

Lawyer and political analyst Steve Kabita says the honeymoon between the church and the Kenya Kwanza administration is over and now some church leaders are speaking out.

“Some of the church leaders have now realised that they must speak truth to power to save Kenyans from the turmoil of worsening cost of living and other hardships bedevilling Kenyans,” Mr Kabita told the Nation.

DP Gachagua and National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah appear to be leading the pack of leaders openly criticising the clergy for ‘undue criticism of the government’.

But Dr Ruto and other leaders in his administration have refrained from criticising the church over the state of the economy.

In a move that perhaps sums up the state of the strained relationship between the government’s top brass and the Church, Mr Ichung’wah at the weekend took on two of the country’s top clerics.

He claimed that the head of the Anglican Church in Kenya, Bishop Jackson Ole Sapit, and Archbishop Anthony Muheria of the Catholic Diocese of Nyeri were opposition sympathisers.

The Kikuyu MP claimed that the two bishops were friends of Azimio leader Raila Odinga and had no moral authority to criticise the development and economic policies of the Kenya Kwanza administration. 

Speaking in Kericho during an interdenominational prayer session where he was hosted by Governor Erick Mutai and Ainamoi MP Benjamin Langat, Mr Kimani said some of the country’s clerics were “engaged in active politics instead of playing their role as spiritual leaders by preaching the Gospel”.

“Bishop Muheria and Bishop Sapit openly sided with Mr Odinga in the last general election and continue to do so after the election. Even when they speak, we all know who they are speaking for,” Mr Kimani said.

The MP said the clergy should engage in objective criticism of the government, devoid of the insults that have recently been “hurled by some of the senior clerics in the country”.

“Bishop Sapit should not be blind to the reality of the country today because we all know what those you supported have done to our economy and brought it to its knees,” Mr Ichung’wah said.

The politician said Dr Ruto’s administration had embarked on “a long and arduous journey to turn around the economy after the Jubilee government of former President Uhuru Kenyatta messed it up”.

“When we err, the clergy are supposed to rein us in, but some of them have openly engaged in politics and sided with the opposition. I want to tell the clergy that we respect them and the Church, but they should not be detached from the realities on the ground and criticise for the sake of it,” said Mr Ichung’wah.

“Even if we criticise openly and objectively, it should not be laced with insults, especially from the clergy.”

Recently, DP Gachagua also asked the Church to stop pushing for bipartisan talks between Kenya Kwanza and the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya coalition.

“Do not ask us to sanction blackmail and impunity, because what Raila Odinga is doing is blackmailing us to talk. How can you ask us to fall into a trap, blackmail and intimidation?” he asked.