Kenya Village Voices: Has God Removed His Hand from Uhuru Kenyatta?

Kenya Village Voices: Has God Removed His Hand from Uhuru Kenyatta?

Something has gone wrong in Kenya. A fog has descended on the mountains, hills, and in the plains because the people are having a hard time seeing beyond today. Some have surmised that the fog has been brought by a curse because Raila Odinga has bewitched President Uhuru Kenyatta.

There is a way of gauging the hand of God in a person’s life and in society. The God of Abraham has constantly said that those who trust in Him will have His peace. The biblical definition of peace is tranquility—the state of harmony giving people an environment to not only work but to flourish. God’s decree after Adam and Eve sinned in Eden was to curse the ground so that men would have to cultivate the earth to enjoy the fruits of their labor. But it is the very same God who provides an environment to make it possible for men to reap the benefits of their labor. When a society is lacking the ability to flourish, the hand of God is absent. In the first years of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto, the country enjoyed tranquility. Then two events happened. First, President Uhuru Kenyatta made a pact with Raila Odinga. Second, he dismissed his Christian faith by worshipping in a mosque.

If it is true that the fog that Kenya has entered into resulted from the first action by President Uhuru Kenyatta with Raila Odinga, then what has transpired after he worshipped in the mosque? This is not to say that those who worship in the mosque are not genuine about their own faith, but it is to say that those who profess Christ as Lord and Savior cannot serve or worship any other since Christians believe there is no other means of salvation. If the Bible claims exclusivity in the process of eternal life, one cannot then follow any other path to enjoy this blessing. President Uhuru Kenyatta has historically claimed to be a believer in Jesus Christ. Christ said, ““I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6, NIV). If that claim is absolute, which Christians believe it is, to act as though there are other ways for salvation is to testify against what Christ said and did to procure our salvation.

The Bible presents an unrepentant testimony about the nature of God in Christ. “So that by two unchangeable things, in which it is also impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge for salvation through Christ alone might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us (Hebrews 6:18). Our hope means, our hope in Christ whose sinless sacrifice on the Cross made salvation for anyone who would believe possible. Given that President Uhuru Kenyatta kneeled down in a mosque, which presents a different path from the way of the Cross for the only possibility of forgiveness of sins through the sacrifice of Christ alone, it could be argued that it is a rejection of Christ’s claim: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

The question is, what happens when a leader becomes blind to the foundation of divine tranquility? The Bible talks about the nature of this blindness. “Hear this,

you, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear”( Jeremiah 5:21, NIV). Later, Jesus affirmed this myopia by saying, “Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?” (Mark 8:18, NIV) . The question that we theologians must answer in relationship to the plight of the Republic is this: What is it that they do not see or hear, or remember?

Forgetting what the leader believes is only the beginning since that can affect his actions on behalf of the Republic. The government has decided to stop the meetings organized to help the poor. Whether the meetings were political or not, the issue still remains: the poor are dying of hunger and cannot find bread. The President and Deputy President promised that if they were elected, they would do something about the plight of the poor. The people are not blind to their misery and they are crying to God to hold those who are accountable to their promise.

Deputy President William Ruto has kept his antennae up to capture the wave of the voices of the poor and disenchanted. Somehow he has not forgotten the prayers for rescue against the ICC, and his second term prayer and promise to remember the least of these.

There is no way the poor are not calling out to God since their children are sleeping hungry. They are praying for rescue against those few who are getting 600 billion Kenya Shillings a month (Parliament, Senate, Governors, MCAs). Against these prayers stand President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga who are planning to add a few more positions to further loot the 600 billion Kenya Shilling monthly budget. In this light, then, it would be rational, therefore for the Kenyan villagers who are believers to conclude that their president is blind to his own faith. Also, for them to conclude that the actions that have led to this blindness are a result of the president mixing Christian faith with another faith cannot be dismissed.

If the President does not hear the cries of the poor and open his eyes to their plight and stop making alliances against what his own faith tells him, which we hope and pray he will, then Deputy President William Ruto, has no alternative but to try to answer the cry of the poor because he also promised through prayers that he would.

Teddy Njoroge Kamau (PhD)

HTBluff Associates

Diaspora Messenger Senior Columnist

Kenya Village Voices: Has God Removed His Hand from Uhuru Kenyatta?