On 30th April, 1989 at his St. Thomas Cathedral, Kerugoya he preached the sermon entitled ,’Duties of the State and Obligations of Citizens,’ based on 1Peter 2:13 -17. Gitari informed the congregation that God was a God of order and therefore had established the Government. He said those in authority must therefore be obeyed. He reminded the Christians that they were both citizens of heaven and earth. He disclosed that at the time Paul was writing the Roman Empire was being ruled by Nero who was a ruthless emperor especially towards Jews and Christians. Yet Paul was imploring them to obey him. In application the citizens must be obedient to the President and those who govern with him. He cited Romans 13:3-4 where the citizens are advised to do good in order to earn the praise of those in authority. The state in turn was to protect the citi- zens by punishing evil doers and praising those who do well. If the wrong doers were not punished then that was encouraging impunity. He described the situation as it was in the time of prophet Habakkuk (Ha- bakkuk 1:2-4). Gitari decried the situation in his diocese and especially in Kirinyaga district where evil doers happened to be arrested but then released. It was also during this time that a political KANU activist had threatened to attack Gitari in the church. He had been apprehended but then released. Gitari had the opportunity to declare that he was not go- ing to be intimidated. He declared, ‘…threats will neither frighten nor
silence me…I will continue to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ.’55
The other problem facing the country was and is the grabbing of public land set apart for public use by people of influence in the country includ- ing the politicians. To address this situation which the church leaders in Kenya have always spoken against Gitari preached a sermon on 19th May, 1991 entitled, ‘Was there not a Nabboth to say No?’ The Kirinyaga County Council had allocated water catchment forest hill to a private developer to build a hotel. True to the text Gitari describes how King Ahab was interested in the land of one of his subjects Naboth and wanted to buy it. When he refused the queen Jezebel arranged how he would be killed and then they get the land for their ‘vegetable garden.’ Then Prophet Elijah appears in the scene to condemn King Ahab and his queen for their action.
With this story Gitari condemns both the Kirinyaga County Council and the private developer. Kirinyaga County council failed to protect the public land while the private developer is greedy to make profit while the masses suffer environmental degradation. Gitari deplores the idol wor- ship practiced by Ahab and applied to how people worship wealth, lies, political power etc. He then points out how Ahab oppressed the poor which is quite evident in Kenya. He revealed how the prosperity of king and his high standard of living was achieved at the expense of the poor people because the system then as now tended to place the poor at the mercy of the rich and the influential. The poor were forced to borrow money from the rich, the rich would in turn charge very high interest rates and if they failed to pay in time, they faced either eviction from their land or slavery. Gitari cited so many places that had been grabbed by influential people in the district and yet no one was raising a finger. He blamed the local authority for allocating those public areas to these people and urged that public land be left untouched and only utilized for public purposes. He gave six cardinal principles to be observed:
1. Ensure that any land preserved for public utility is not interfered with.
2. There should be no delay in compensating individuals whose land has been taken for public utility with alternate land.
3. Individuals should pay their legal fees and land rates to the Council itself and not individual employees or councilors.
4. Individuals to use the land for the development which they had indicated when being allocated the land.
5. Any property identified for sale by the Council should be advertised for tendering and sold to the highest binder.
6. Elected leaders and top civil servants should not be the main bene- ficiaries of the land entrusted to the Council.56
He called on the people to know their rights and demand them and learn to say No like Nabboth. Gitari pointed out that king Ahab called the prophet the trouble maker in Israel while in fact he was the minder of Israel. This is a clear demonstration of Gitari as an advocate for the poor and the welfare of the country that use the Bible to fight for those rights. Democracy is about the distribution of resources equitably. This is what Gitari indicates the Bible to advocate and challenges the authori- ties using it.
We have picked just a few of Gitari’s published sermons. Since 20th July, 1975 when he was consecrated and enthroned as Bishop he has preached numerous sermons and presented unaccountable papers in- ternationally and nationally. In these presentations he has always based them from the Bible. The themes of justice and peace, responsible gov- ernance and protection of the environment, promotion and protection of human rights and equal distribution of resources, respect for the poor and marginalized, transparency and integrity issues and all that pertains to democracy have been tackled in his speeches and sermons. Time and space does not allow us to enumerate his ministry as Bishop and Archbishop. He has been at the forefront in the struggle for democracy and political pluralism in Kenya. This has earned him both friends and enemies. He has been abused and attacked for his stand. He has re- mained steadfast and has not wavered in his commitment and love for Kenya which he says has been prompted by his love for God. In his use of the Bible he has followed what D.A. Carson advises
It is far better for all Christians to read every part of the Scripture, think it through on its own terms, discern, so far as possible, its contribution to the
whole of the canon, and then ask how such truth applies to themselves and to the church and society of which they are a part.57
There are two other Biblical themes which would contribute towards engendering pluralism, that is, the Trinity and the image of the church as a body. In Genesis 1:26, we read God speaking in plural as He con- siders the creation of human beings. Without falling into the temptation of economic trinity, we find that the persons of the Godhead working together leading us to modalism or the idea that there really is only one divine nature which appears in three ‘modes of being’. That is, the vari- ous works of salvation are distributed to the three persons, so creation becomes solely the work of the Father; redemption is the work of the Son alone and sanctification the specific work of the Spirit.58It would be
too much reading into the text if we said that there was a discussion in the Godhead as to how human beings would look like. Extrapolating on this biblical motif the bible offers a model for democracy and plurality in the sense that Christians as citizens of a country can contribute signifi- cantly to the development of their respective countries by harnessing their different and unique gifting and talents. The voices and opinions of the citizenry, though diverse, can be considered and brought to bear the challenge of developing their respective countries in their own individual and collective capacities. Perhaps this is why Edgar suggests that ‘the Trinity is also the christian’s paradigm for social and political life.’59 St.
Paul in 1Corinthians chapter 12 informs the church that each member has received a different spiritual gift from the same spirit but for the welfare of the whole body. He describes the church as a body with many different organs but working for welfare of the whole body. This image could well be used in the discussion about unity in diversity in a nation. The church also has people from different ethnic and racial groups and different social backgrounds and cultures. This multiculturism should be used as a challenge for the country to have political pluralism. The only problem is that the church fails sometimes to be the role model of this unity and diversity thus losing its moral authority to challenge the politicians. The Church is depicted in the Acts of Apostles as a commu- nity of believers. People from different communities started a new life
57 D.A.Carson, Approaching the Bible, in New Bible Commentary, 21st Century Edition,
Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester, 2002, p 18.
58 Edgar, B. The Message of the Trinity; Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester: 2004, p 27. 59 Edgar, The Message of the Trinity. p 29.
together. They were from different nationalities as described on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:5-11). We see them forming communities where they really listened to one another and shared their resources ‘to each as any had need’ (Acts 4:35). Africans never think themselves as individu- als. One belongs to a family, clan and ethnic community. Each family and clan have their own ideas and ways of doing things but all these contribute towards the welfare of the ethnic community. That is why the Biblical message of a community finds place in the African life. The community motif in the bible can be used to describe the country in its pluralism.