Maverick cleric the, Rev Dr Timothy Njoya, shoots from the hip and takes no prisoners. He spoke to JAMES MWANGI about barely literate pastors and why Margaret Kenyatta and Rachael Ruto are better leaders than their husbands
What is the status of the Kenyan nation?
We have no nation. After independence, we remained a market. Ours is a willing seller, willing buyer market, so that if you don’t have money, you die, sleep in the open or go hungry.
We are a man-eat-man society. Sometimes I wonder whether Kenya will become a nation, but I believe we have potential of becoming one. We have the resources and a sense of patriotism. I am pleased devolution might lead us towards becoming a nation.
The Church is a pillar of our democracy. It has fought against injustice in the past. Why is it silent in our hour of need?
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The Church has been conservative. Even in the Old Testament, only certain prophets spoke out. During my time, only a few clergymen talked and they were articulate and more ‘educated’ than people in politics and leadership.
On October 5, 1986, at St Andrews Church, Nairobi, I proclaimed that we must dismantle the one-party system and institute democracy. I was betrayed by clergymen and battered, but this came to pass years later. I don’t know of any clergy who can tell Uhuru and Ruto what I told President Daniel arap Moi then.
Those days, we spoke and the government responded. But today, the Church is lagging behind the politicians who are now the newsmakers. The Church is not ahead of issues anymore. It lacks the aptitude to comprehend the magnitude of issues Kenya is facing. Our seminaries are producing only religious people and sycophants, not thinkers.
There is a lot of mediocrity in the Church that I had not seen before. Churches are only giving temporary cathartic relief and not solutions. The National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) is an island of incapability and transparency in an ocean of corruption, darkness, and opaqueness.
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