All Saints Cathedral Provost Sammy Wainaina has criticised the Kenya Kwanza administration for what he describes as praying for Kenyans instead of actually serving them.
Wainaina, who has made headlines in recent days, faulting President William Ruto’s government for holding numerous prayer rallies he calls inauthentic, says Kenyans need services from the government and not prayers.
“What we need from government are not prayers; prayers we will make and we do make. What we need from government are services,” the clergyman told Spice FM in a Wednesday interview.
The reverend criticised Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua over his recent comments that the government is a company where ‘majority shareholders’ get benefits in comparison to those ‘without shares’.
Gachagua on February 19 declared that government appointments and contracts are a preserve of those who voted for the Kenya Kwanza government, saying Ruto’s administration will reward its staunch supporters and those who toiled to put the current government in office.
The DP, who has fashioned himself a church person and whose wife, Second Lady Dorcas Rigathi, is a pastor, said they would give the least consideration to members of the opposition.
To Wainaina, the comments are a sign that Kenya is in trouble.
“When you hear a very senior government official saying that there are shares and you can be moved back in the line because you do not have shares, and that is coming from the number-two, you actually know that you are in real problems,” he said.
He challenged religious leaders close to members of Ruto’s administration to advise the leadership on being inclusive.
“Religious leaders who are close to that power can use their influence to tell them, ‘Hello, please be careful of what you say in public’ because there is a lot of careless talk from our political leaders,” Wainaina noted.
Accusing the administration of politicking instead of service delivery, Provost Wainaina said; “We are away from politics now. You promised to deliver, simply deliver. That’s all!”
“Let’s not sanitise or try to make government religious so that we don’t question them. If they said they are going to do something let them implement their manifestos,” he added.
President Ruto’s held a National Prayer Day event at the Nyayo Stadium on February 14 in an effort to ask for God’s intervention in bringing rain and blessings to the country.
After the event, First Lady Rachel Ruto, herself another ‘prayer warrior’, told farmers across the nation to till their farms before the onset of rains, which she assured were around the corner.
Mrs Ruto said God had heard the nation’s cries and that the situation was about to change in no time, and even referred to the scattered afternoon clouds saying it was a sign of the answered prayers.
Second Lady Dorcas Rigathi has also been quoted giving hope to Kenyans amid the biting drought, saying “as a pastor, I know there is God who will intervene and bring rains.”
The president has held a number of interdenominational prayer sessions ever since he ascended to the presidency, drawing ire from a section of his detractors who feel that the church should remain independent and separate from political affairs.
But while his critics say he is sidelining non-Christian Kenyans, President Ruto maintains that through his activities, the church has finally rediscovered its place in the country’s political scene after a long time.
Ruto argues that the church has for the longest time taken a back seat in the country’s political affairs, but that the clergy is slowly making a comeback.
“Watu wengi waliodunisha neno la Mungu wakakejeli kanisa la Mungu, wakajifanya ati kuna Deep State mpaka kanisa ikaanza kuogopa, but today I am happy that the church has come back to the centre of Kenyan politics,” he told the crowd during last month’s prayer rally.
