Prayers, forgiveness defined Moi’s belief in God, men of cloth say

On the evening of Thursday January 30, former President Daniel arap Moi requested a ministry of the Holy Communion by Bishop Silas Yego at his private ward in Nairobi Hospital.

This was to be the last communion for a man who held the church close to his heart to the end. Church leaders who interacted with Moi tell of a man who loved God and people, and never wasted a minute when called upon to support the church.

Africa Inland Church (AIC) Milimani stands as an icon along State House Avenue and is one of the churches the former president invested in heavily.

Immediate former AIC Presiding Bishop Yego, says Moi invested millions of shillings in this particular church even after he had given the land on which it stands.

“President Moi was a generous person; I cannot count the number of churches he helped build, not only AIC. He could dispatch MPs and civil servants to present his donations and I can say half of his fortune went to the church,” says Yego.

Reverend Stephen Mairori, the Senior Pastor at AIC Milimani, while passing his condolences to the family, said Moi was not only a lover of people but a man who wanted to see the church grow.

“He has left a legacy that ought to be emulated by other leaders,” says Mairori.

But his love was not just to attend services in church but also in prayer. Yego says the former president intimated to him that he would wake up at 3am and take an hour of prayer then read the bible before starting his day.

Perhaps unlike most political leaders, Yego confesses, to Moi an ordained pastor was a very important person regardless of their rank in church hierarchy.

He recalls how their long-term friendship started in 1986 after he preached at a graduation ceremony at the coast.

“I was doing my pastoral at Pwani Bible Institute, it happened that one of the graduands was from Baringo and Moi was in Mombasa. He heard that one of his constituents was graduating and he came,” recalls Yego.

Moi was listening to Yego preach for the second time and he instructed then State House Comptroller Abraham Kiptanui to invite the young pastor to State House, Mombasa.

The bishop recalls Moi asking him what means of travel he had used to Mombasa and was amused when he heard Yego had travelled by rail. When the president went back to Nakuru he asked Prof Jones Kaleli to be inviting Yego to preach at Moi High School Kabarak.

Former Mbeere MP Reverend Mutava Musyimi remembers a firm man who was clear in his convictions.

“If he made a promise, he would follow through and I found he had a soft spot for the church, especially AIC,” says Musyimi, a former General Secretary of the National Council of Churches in Kenya (NCCK).

The two often rubbed shoulders during the clamour for reforms and after Moi retired Musyimi recalls meeting him and the two praying together in what he says was a very personal meeting.

But most striking in the relationship of the two dates back to February 4, 1984 when Moi attended Musyimi’s wedding at the Nairobi Baptist Church. Coincidentally, it is on the same date, 35 years later that the president rested.

During Musyimi’s stint as the lead pastor at the church, he recalls Moi attending the services on several occasions, as elite members of AIC would often attend the church before the Milimani AIC was constructed.

Archbishop Jackson ole Sapit concurs that indeed the president held the church close to his heart. He describes Moi as an icon of stability who managed to keep the country together in the midst of numerous storms.

“These storms seem to have shaped his prayer life and endeared him to the church; he was instrumental in the building of many schools and churches, especially the AIC,” says Dr Sapit.

Yego adds that Mzee’s favourite Bible reading was 2 Chronicles 20:15, which he would read and proclaim, especially in 1991 when the opposition came together. It did not take long before the unity broke.

“His love for men of God saw him give me unfettered access to State House and even then Moi’s generosity struck me. You could never leave empty-handed if you visited him,” says Yego.

He tells of a president who loved to see a united nation that even after his retirement, Moi would ask the bishop to constantly pray for unity.

Yego says, “He was not tribalist. He could bring Phares Kuindwa from a small tribe called Pokomo to be head of the civil service. He could also bring Titus Ngoyoni from the Rendile to become a DC and that was his nature.”

Perhaps what Christian taught Mzee, according to Bishop Yego, was forgiveness and how to seek for it. He says once those who were detained came out of jail Moi sought to meet them and seek forgiveness.

It is on record he said at one time at Nyayo Stadium that if he had wronged anyone, he asked for forgiveness and he had also forgiven anyone who wronged him.