Abstract
In the 1980s, mainline Christian churches and clerics were regarded as the vanguards of democracy. Employing critical pulpit theology (CPT), they challenged authoritarian one-party misrule and ushered Kenya into a multi-party democracy. In South Africa, notable clergy relied on the pulpits in declaring a Kairos against the apartheid dictatorship. Despite these remarkable contributions of mainline churches, there is growing concern about the decline of prophetic witness in the post-democratic transition period. This study reviews the prophetic witness of the mainline church clergy to democratic transition politics in Kenya. The study is conducted through a qualitative literature analysis of the prophetic witness of the clergy. It argues that the mainline church clerics employed CPT as public theology in addressing authoritarianism, leading to the 1990s concession for multi-party democracy. In examining the development of church and state in post-colonial Kenya, this study nuances complementary theologies such as Kenya’s Kairos document and African reconstruction theology by African theo-philosopher Jesse Ndwiga Mugambi. The Kenyan Kairos motif emerged 3 years after its birth in South Africa, but its impact was short-lived because Mugambi launched his reconstruction project. Although Mugambi received global attention from theologians, it lost steam with the democratic regressions recorded in Africa. It is argued that the Kairos and reconstruction motifs were complementary projects.
Contribution: This article calls for an urgent renaissance of CPT as a practical public theology to address persistent contemporary challenges, including climate change, political and economic catastrophes, xenophobia, and ethnic and political violence.
Keywords: critical pulpit theology; mainline church; clergy; Kenya’s Kairos document; reconstruction theology; democracy.
Introduction
African public theology has developed with changing social and political contexts. In South Africa, black theology germinated from the Black Consciousness Movement as African clergy and laity grappled with oppression under the apartheid regime. As a critical public theology, it was concerned with the black experiences of racism and authoritarianism. They sought refuge in the gospel and underscored the agency of God’s liberation for black South Africans. In the 1970s and 1980s, as South Africa struggled for liberation from the apartheid system, Protestant Kenyan clerics from the Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian churches engaged in pulpit protests against one-party dictatorship. This article investigates how the pulpit was used to deconstruct ‘authoritarian images’ during President Daniel Arap Moi’s regime (1978–2002). This was a defining moment in the church’s prophetic mission, as they had largely been collaborative agencies of the state from the British colonial period until the 1980s when Protestant clerics initiated what I termed as critical pulpit theology (CPT).
Before the 1980s, the church supported the Kenya African National Union (KANU) government and did little to raise its prophetic voice (Githiga 2001). Thus, the government began to ‘misbehave’ with political independence in 1963 as a few politicians and powerbrokers drawn from President Jomo Kenyatta’s (1963–1978) backyard of Kiambu captured the state. The ruling party was characterised by land grabbing, ethnicity and skewed government appointments and development. This was crowned by the political assassinations of Pinto Pi Gama (d. 1965), Tom Joseph Mboya (d. 1969) and Josiah Mwangi Kariuki (d. 1975). The church’s response to political extremism was lukewarm, as it was in an unofficial partnership with the state on the pretext of development. The partnership involved investment in humanitarianism and the development of schools, health centres and agriculture (Chepkwony 1987). This partnership, however, was constrained during the Presidency of Daniel Arap Moi in the 1980s into the 1990s as mainline churches struggled to reclaim their prophetic voice in the public sphere.
This article reviews the church’s prophetic ministry during the authoritarian Moi regime and the laxity that developed after the 2002 democratic transition. President Moi came into power in August 1978 upon Kenyatta’s death. While Kenyatta had pegged his development agenda on Harambee philosophy (Kiswahili word that means pulling together) where citizens pulled resources together. Moi introduced another philosophy called ‘Nyayo’ (Swahili for ‘footstep’), which implied that development projects were distributed based on loyalty. Obsessed with power, Moi insisted that all citizens follow his ‘footsteps’ and imitate his development agenda. The Nyayo philosophy was contested by mainline churches, who termed it idolatry. Bishop David Gitari of the Anglican Church, among other mainline church clergy, protested this philosophy, arguing that the church would follow the footsteps of Jesus Christ, imitating his mission for the world and witnessing in truth.
This signalled the emergence of a CPT, as Gitari and other Protestant clerics sustained pulpit criticism of KANU and Moi throughout the 1980s and 1990s. David Mukuva Gitari was among the most critical clergy against the KANU government. Born in 1937 in Ngiriambu in Central Kenya to a Christian family (Gathogo 2011), Gitari was ordained in 1971 at St Mark’s Church and became the youngest bishop of Mount Kenya East in 1975 (Gitari 2014). He emerged as a prophetic voice when mainline churches were less vocal on political and human rights affairs. Gitari met with John Henry Okullu, then bishop of Maseno South Diocese, to address social and political ills. Okullu, a trained journalist and theologian, was known in East Africa as a troublesome cleric because of his social sermons. Born in 1929 in Asembo, Nyanza province, Okullu studied at Ramba and Kima School (Okullu 1997) and later went to Uganda, where his faith in Christianity developed. Okullu and Gitari were the two Anglican clergy who challenged Kenyatta’s regime and later they were joined by Alexander Muge and Timothy Njoya.
Alexander Kipsang Muge was born in 1948 in Uasin Gishu and became the Anglican Bishop of Eldoret in 1983 after serving briefly as the assistant provost of All Saints Cathedral, Nairobi (Otieno 1993). Upon his enthronement as the bishop of Eldoret, Muge, like Gitari and Okullu, challenged undemocratic practices and policies of the KANU government. Their pulpits weaved threads of compassion, justice and hope during the struggle to restore human dignity and liberation from the authoritarian Moi regime (1978–2002).
Working closely with the three Anglican clerics was Timothy Njoya from the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA). Born on 17 April 1941 in present-day Nyeri County, Njoya emerged as a beacon of hope by challenging the autocratic Moi regime. Trained in political science and theology from Princeton University, Njoya built his pulpit theology based on human dignity. He championed human rights and organised street protests for democratic renewal in the 1980s and 1990s. The transformative ministry of these protestant clerics received attention as scholars sought to understand their public theology. The extensive literature on their prophetic ministry is tilted in favour of historians and political scientists (Chepkwony 1987; Lonsdale et al., 1978, 2004, 2009; Throup 1995) with less theological analysis. Some theologians, however, have written on their prophetic witness, maintaining that their pulpit sermons lacked any concrete theology compared to their contemporaries in South Africa who deployed black liberation theology and the Kairos model. Unlike South African clerics such as Allan Boesak, who employed black theology in challenging the apartheid regime, the Kenyan clerics, they observed, lacked cohesive theology that could define and shape their struggle against authoritarianism. The failure to appreciate and decode the public theology that informed clerical protests in Kenya can be termed as hermeneutical insubordination and subversion of their prophetic witness. This study addresses this lacuna by examining the clerics’ creative and innovative application of scripture to deconstruct ‘authoritarian images’ in Kenya. It argues that the protesting clerics developed a critical public theology underpinning their civil society engagement.
Many scholars have acknowledged the intersection of the Bible and politics in prophetic Christianity (Benson 1995; West 1995; Gunda & Kügler 2012). The Bible commands public authority, and it is the most widely read book on the continent according to Mbiti (1986:3). Thus, the Bible has socially occupied an uncontested place in the hearts and minds of many Africans (Gunda & Kügler 2012). Reflecting on the pulpit sermons of Gitari, Okullu and Njoya, this study shifts from the Western theological frames that have under-theorised the prophetic ministry of these clerics by glossing over their theological imprints. The study argues that these clergy forged a CPT that underscores the contextual social realities of power. Recent scholarship by Burns and Tengatenga (2024) observed that these Protestant clerics developed a post-colonial public theology that unsettled political power. Thus, the failure to map their contribution undermines the growth of Anglican theology in the Global South (Burns & Tengatenga 2024). Indeed, their profound pulpit activism has been used as a prophetic model for assessing the performance of the Kenyan church in civil society after the 2002 democratic transition. To this end, the study proceeds by introducing CPT as a post-colonial public theology. This is followed by a discussion of other public theologies that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, such as the Kairos motif and African Reconstruction Theology as complementary paradigms.
Critical pulpit theology: A prophetic public theology?
The pulpit and the Bible have been a revolutionary resource in liberation discourse by black theologians in the United States of America (US) and Africa. The Civil Rights Movement, for instance, was profoundly shaped and sustained by critical sermons from Martin Luther King Jr. and his allies (Booker 2014). In South Africa, the prophetic sermons of Rev. Allan Boesak, Desmond Tutu and Naudé Beyers, among other clerical activists, have been contextualised to assert the role of the pulpit in civil society. The sermons of Boesak, for example, have been described as ‘rhetorical, theological, situational, and prophetic’ (Cilliers 2013; Tisdale 2010:92). Thus, Boesak says preaching ‘is the contextual proclamation of the gospel’. This study considered critical pulpit preaching as a prophetic public theology. It argues that CPT must be analysed within distinct socio-cultural, political and economic contexts as a prophetic theological conversation.
As I have mentioned, the prophetic preaching that characterised Anglican clerics’ pulpit sermons in the 1980s was generally considered ‘biblical Christianity’ (Benson 1995) and political Christianity (Gifford 2009; Knighton 2009). The Protestant clergy were pushed to engage critically with the KANU government following massive corruption and human rights abuses. Gitari, Okullu, Muge and Njoya spoke truth to power, often preaching against undemocratic practices. This moment of truth began in the early1980s after the attempted coup d’état of 1982 and extensive electoral fraud that deprived citizens of good leadership. The pulpit protests led to some government concession, but much pressure continued with calls for multi-party democracy and constitutional reforms in the 1990s (Kapinde 2018). Belatedly, the critical pulpit sermons preached by the protesting clergy cemented the church’s prophetic voice in the struggle for political reforms. Many practical theologians have noted that prophetic theology or CPT ‘has to do with the practice of social ethics and justice’ (De Wet 2014a; De Wet & Kruger 2013; Cilliers 2016). Thus, throughout this article, I use ‘prophetic theology’ interchangeably with CPT to refer to a combination of critical theological reflection on social, political and ethical concerns.
Broadly, the theological tasks at the pulpit fall within the sub-discipline of homiletics, but in our context, it is an attempt to claim theology from the pulpit. Granted, CPT is scripturally formulated on the pulpit and adopts an ecumenical homiletical approach. While drawing from the Bible, the Protestant clergy who adopted CPT followed different hermeneutical approaches in their prophetic witness. More than any other clerics, the Anglican clergy Okullu, Muge and Gitari relied on diverse hermeneutical methods to develop their brands of CPT. However, this did not water down their confessional identities as expressed in the Anglican clarion call ‘unity in diversity’ (Karanja 2006:587).1 Equally, their pastoral style varied to an extent: Okullu and Muge preferred an extrapolation approach to the scripture, and Gitari adopted exposition (Karanja 2006), while Timothy Njoya built his public theology on the concept of humanity and the doctrine of divine sovereignty. This theological and hermeneutic dynamism contributed to the misinterpretation of their work as lacking cohesiveness. Paul Gifford (2009) and Paddy Benson (1995) concluded that these clerics engaged in biblical Christianity.
While the history of CPT is not well developed as a distinct model of prophetic witness, one of the probable scholars reinforcing this idea of pulpit theology is American homiletician David Jacobsen in his work ‘Homiletical Theology: Preaching as Doing Theology’. He argues that preaching in itself is a theological action and that homiletics is thus a special criterion of doing theology (Jacobsen 2015). This is contrary to the Western way of theologising, where abstract theories are imported to the pulpit with less social analysis of the contextual and lived experiences of the congregants. Jacobsen (2015) observes that homiletics becomes the realm of theological application if that is the case. That would probably render ‘preaching as the implementation of theological maxims developed elsewhere rather than a ‘performance of God’s voice’ through historical distances’ (Cilliers 2013; Jacobsen 2015). Claiming theology from the pulpit requires an inductive approach and a post-colonial hermeneutic that is countercultural thus deconstructing oppressive teachings.
The theological modes of critical pulpit theology
As I pointed out, CPT is a prophetic witness of God’s salvific mission through Jesus Christ by creating an alternative consciousness. It is a contextualised theology that is informed by the biblical metaphors of liberation and reconstruction. Critical pulpit theology is epistemologically indebted to African biblical hermeneutics, is flexible and not limited to ecclesiastical traditions or confessional identities. As a post-colonial paradigm, CPT by definition has a public function beyond its evangelical mandate. Gitari considers CPT as a ‘prophet dialogue’ with contemporary society and critical sermons as the conscientisation duty of a responsible church (Gitari 2005:76). Further, Gitari considered this form of engaged preaching as the primary social duty of prophetic clergy ‘to measure the state actions by the standard of scripture and to remind the state about its accountability to God’ (Karanja 2006:584). Our fidelity engenders our faith in God to scriptural authority, sola scriptura, which becomes one of the foundations for an ethical moral judgement about state authoritarianism. In this context, Protestant clergy calls Jesus Christ to calm the storm of oppression, marginalisation, ethnicity and corruption, among other social evils (Mk 4:35–41). Consequently, CPT grants the oppressed an epistemological frame to challenge the oppressor (authoritarian regimes).
More importantly, critical pulpit preaching requires an attentive and critical theological reflection of the biblical text. This is illustrated well by South African theologian Itumeleng Mosala, who states that uncritical reading of the scripture tends to oppress further and alienate the poor by appropriating the ideologically undifferentiated biblical text as the ‘revealed word of God’ (Mosala 1989:32). Elelwani B. Farisani observes that uncritical theological reflection disempowers the congregants, thus weakening them spiritually (Farisani 2002, 2003). This study argues that many pulpit sermons are superficial and create what Ferguson–Smith (2015) called ‘spiritual moribundity’. The cultural and political posture of the clergy can influence their teachings by suppressing God’s performative voice in the sermons. In apartheid South Africa, the Dutch Reformed Church encapsulated a theology that affirmed segregation as God’s design of creation. It became the face of racism and oppression of black Africans. We can draw a parallel to some Evangelical and Pentecostal churches, which embraced Moi’s authoritarianism as sanctioned by God (Rm 1:13). Others preached the gospel of peace and love for those in leadership (Mt 5:38) and rebuked prophetic preachers for creating political disturbance.
By contrast, critical pulpit preachers such as Gitari provided a counterbalance to those in power by articulating and reinterpreting the salvific nature of the gospel (Muoki & Kapinde 2016). Gitari sees this form of social preaching in three modes: (1) evangelical perspective, (2) prophetic and (3) constructive dialogue on the socio-cultural and political affairs of the state. From an evangelical lens, many are convinced that personal conversion is sufficient in and of itself to effect social change by witnessing truth and love. The Protestant clergy Gitari, Okullu and Muge viewed their call to witness truth to power as part of their confessional identity. Jeffrey Greenman comments on this call that ‘the unshakable Biblicism and conversionism made them discern the meaning of the gospel’s call to personal transformation’ (Greenman 2012:204). Thus, the clerics considered the struggle for justice an integral element of their pastoral ministry.
Gitari, Okullu and Muge also consider critical pulpit preaching to be a prophetic mission. They observe that the church leader is called to be a shepherd and a prophet to the nation. The clergy leads the congregation through the gospel of Our Lord as a shepherd. Moreover, as a prophet, the clergy is the nation’s conscience (Gitari 2005:71). From a prophetic perspective, the word of God is that which strikes the conscience and creates a holy disturbance. Critical pulpit preaching is also a constructive dialogue on the world’s affairs. This is illustrated well by Boesak (1982) in his book ‘The Finger of God: Sermons on Faith and Socio-Political Responsibility’ that the task of a prophetic preacher:
[I]s to speak the word of God in such a way that it comforts, inspires, and gives life; for the black Christians seek a word that witnesses to the presence of God in their midst. A word that shows a way out of the darkness of oppression, poverty and misery. A word that is an inspiration to active participation in God’s struggle for justice and liberation. (p. 4)
Boesak challenges preachers that ‘pulpit theology’ without being critical in the complex engagement with their time’s social, political and economic conditions ends up propagating a state theology. Gitari talks of critical, constructive and creative participation beyond the pulpit. Drawing from Jesus’s instruction to the disciples to be the salt and the light of the world, Gitari argues that Christians cannot feel their saltiness unless they are actively present in society (Gitari 2005:71). Gitari expounds this by observing that the church has a public mandate to sensitise people to the meaning of citizenship and fundamental constitutional rights. Thus, critical pulpit preachers through biblical exposition assist people to vote with consciousness about existential issues undermining their well-being as creations of God.
Gitari also comprehends CPT from the theology of God, creation, incarnation and the Kingdom of God (Karanja 2008:80). He argues that God, having created humans in his image [imago dei], bestowed on them a stewardship mandate over the earth. This mandate is not the preserve of a political class but of all humanity. Gitari shifts from the creation mandate to the incarnation model; he observes that Christ’s incarnation challenges Christians to get involved in transforming the world (Gitari 1988:13). Gitari concludes that Jesus’s mission was not limited to the spiritual sphere but was inclusive of the material world. Jesus’s holistic ministry responded to the spiritual needs and physical demands of human beings (Gitari 2014:41). While addressing members of the clergy in Mount Kenya East Diocese, Gitari (1988) argues that Jesus was a pragmatic theologian:
Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, feeding and healing every disease and every infirmity. He came to heal the sick, free prisoners and announce the acceptable year of the Lord. (p. 13)
This exhortation sheds more light on Gitari’s theology of God’s Kingdom as a realised immediate reality as well as futuristic (Karanja 2008:80). For Gitari, Christians should not shy away from socio and political affairs if they want to have a foretaste of the fruits of the Kingdom of God in this world. Employing the incarnation model of Gitari, one can view Jesus as a critical preacher who does not shy away from contemporary social realities. As a public theologian, Jesus challenged the Jewish ecclesiastical traditions that limited healing activities on the Sabbath day (Lk 13:10–17; Mr 3:1–6). He continued preaching, healing and performed miracles against the indignant Jewish religious leaders stuck in the past. The holistic ministry of Jesus addressed the contextual social realities of the masses by touching on social, spiritual, economic and political matters.
Over and above, Okullu and Muge also viewed CPT as a prophetic theology. Their understanding of this form of public theology corresponds to the work of Leonora Tisdale, who provides seven hallmarks of prophetic preaching as: (1) countercultural, (2) rooted in the biblical witness, (3) prophetic preaching as concerned with corporate and public issues than personal ameliorations, (4) prophetic preaching calls for radical criticism of the status quo and (5) provides hope for liberation from oppression (6) is empowering by providing an alternative consciousness, and lastly, (7) prophetic preaching is a social proclamation and imagination of the moment through the power of the Holy Spirit.
From critical pulpit theology to Kairos theology
Critical pulpit theology was the dominant paradigm of Christian protest against authoritarianism in the 1980s and was complemented by the Kairos theology and African Reconstruction Theology (ART). The Christian council, the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK),2 launched the Kairos document as a transitional paradigm to multi-party democracy in the early 1990s. Therefore, Kairos theology marked a shift from individual activism to institutionalisation of the struggle for better governance. Apart from a few instances when mainline churches issued prophetic proclamations against the KANU regime, the struggle for political reforms was largely spearheaded by individual clergy, scholars and lawyers. Gitari, Okullu and Njoya were the most vocal religious leaders. Lawyers were led by Gitobu Imanyara, Martha Karua, Paul Muite and James Orengo, who coalesced under the Law Society of Kenya. In addition, environmentalist and Nobel Prize laureate Martha Wangari Maathai (1940–2011) formed the Green Belt Movement, which contested against land grabbing and human rights abuses by KANU politicians.
The NCCK was emboldened by the prophetic sermons mentioned in the preceding section. After numerous deliberations, the Justice, Peace, and Reconciliation Committee of the NCCK declared a Kairos for Kenya in June 1990. In its opening section, NCCK says, ‘Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord’ (Is 1:18), which became the clarion call for multi-party politics. The Kairos specifically called for ethical reflection on Kenya’s social and political context. Viewed continentally, the Kairos Document was a biblical and theological response to the socio-political realities in South Africa during apartheid (Musya 2012:163–170); but has lately been applied universally to refer to any confessional and church declarations on socio-political affairs. It emerged in September 1985 and was revised in 1986 before spreading to other countries worldwide as a significant theological paradigm (West 2012). This ecumenical document was theologically and historically indebted to liberation theology. Albert Nolan (1994) states:
Kairos theology has much in common with liberation theology. In fact, it might well be described as a species of liberation theology. Like other liberation theologies, it uses social analysis and is driven by Christian faith to struggle for the liberation of the oppressed. (p. 215)
Similar views are shared by both Charles Villa-Vicencio and Vuyani S. Vellem on the relationship between the Kairos Document and liberation theology. Villa-Vicencio views the rise of the Kairos as the climax of liberation and black theology. However, more interestingly, Vellem uses the notion of ‘liberative expectancy’ to refer to the importance of the symbol of the Kairos in public life (Vellem 2007:83). The Kairos motif was a contextual theology that made a social diagnosis of the apartheid system and declared it morally corrupt and ungodly. Felipe Buttelli argues that the Kairos was a theological challenge to the church. He states that it was not corporate-driven but formulated by individual clergy from different denominations who were not acting on behalf of their institutional churches. The socio-political realities in South Africa, where some churches such as the Dutch Reformed Church became accomplices, led to the moment of truth with a confession. The Kairos Document is:
… an attempt by the Christians in South Africa to reflect on the situation of death in our country. It is a critique of the current theological models that determine the type of activities the Church engages in to try to resolve the problems of the country. It is an attempt to develop, out of this perplexing situation, an alternative biblical and theological model that will in turn lead to forms of activity that will make a real difference to the future of the country. (Kairos Document 1986)
The acknowledgement that concerned Christians formulated the Kairos Document revealed that this was a people-driven document (Buttelli 2012). Its democratic nature led to wide support from the masses. The Kairos critique of the church’s theological models is a pointer that theological discourses are not the preserve of elite theologians. Instead, theology is a matter for the church and the people. The Kairos Document expounded on three models, including state, church and prophetic theology, that defined diverse positions different churches took on apartheid (Munkee 2023:8). The state theology endorsed the status quo with its racism, capitalism and totalitarianism against the black population (Kairos Document 1986). This theology canonised the will of the powerful against the poor and oppressed Africans. Then, it moves to ‘church theology’, which failed to analyse ‘the signs of times’ critically and took a cautious diplomatic stance (Musya 2012). The superficial engagement of the church proved counterproductive. It relied on the notion of reconciliation without liberation and reconstruction. Buttelli (2012) argues that the Church opted for neutrality despite overwhelming oppression and suffering thus maintaining the status quo.
Juxtaposing the South African and Kenyan contexts, during the struggle for the second liberation in the 1980s, many right-wing evangelical Protestant denominations adopted the two theological models, thus state theology that legitimised Moi’s regime as God-ordained and a diplomatic theology that emphasised the neutrality of the church on matters of politics. This was contrary to the mainline churches which adopted prophetic theology that was built on critical pulpit preaching. In response to church and state theologies, the Kairos Document formulated a prophetic theology based on an in-depth social analysis of the apartheid context. Then it drew parallels with biblical narratives on social justice. According to Buttelli (2012), the Kairos Document likened the apartheid regime to oppression, which is against God’s reign. He further observes that the Kairos Document called for the transformation of the churches by developing special programmes, including civil disobedience against state tyranny (Buttelli 2012:95). The South African Kairos Document: ‘A Challenge to the Church: A Theological Comment on the Political Crisis in South Africa’ (1985), formed a theological tradition among many other brands of post-colonial theologies. This theological tradition tremendously impacted various settings and situations, leading to the emergence of Kairos documents within Southern Africa and globally.3
The Kenyan Kairos is among many other Kairos documents that emerged in other countries. It emerged in 1991 as a transitional theology that opened the gate for ART. Politically, the Kenya Kairos document of March 1991 was a response to the report of the KANU Review Committee (KRC), which went around the country collecting and collating the citizens’ views on the ‘Kenya we Want’.4 This unprecedented project emanated from a protracted struggle for democratic transition from a one-party dictatorship to multi-party politics. The figures behind the liberation struggle were mainline church clergy supported by the NCCK. They challenged undemocratic laws such as the queue voting method that was open to abuse by KANU politicians. Furthermore, the progressive clerics called for multi-party politics and challenged KANU’s political hegemony (Kodia 2014). They acted as vanguards of democracy and initiated stimulatory projects that emboldened oppositional voices in the early 1990s. It is their constant criticism of the KANU government that forced Moi to initiate a ‘National Dialogue’ under the auspices of the KRC. This marked the genesis of the ‘Kenya We Want’ – a citizen-driven clarion call for dialogue and political reforms.
A Kairos for Kenya laid the foundation for this opportune moment for citizens to reflect on the democratic progress of the nation. The document reads:
We have read the signs of the times and are now convinced that this is the time for Kenyans to come together and deliberate on the country’s direction. Given the prevailing socio-political climate, the council is compelled to urge our leaders to hasten the pace of such deliberations to determine how to manage the inevitable change. (NCCK 1991:2)
The Kairos Document deliberated on many social issues, including corruption, ethnicity, unemployment, human rights abuses, electoral malpractices and the failed Africanisation of the economy. It suggested for a presidential term limits to caution the country against political autocracy (NCCK 1991:2). It called for internal democracy in KANU and tolerance of divergent opinions, the failure of which would lead to multi-party politics. The Kairos Document applauded the KRC for having some bold resolutions. Despite the confrontation politics witnessed in the 1980s between the church and the state, the KRC (1990) acknowledged the public role of religion by stating:
The relationship between the state and religious organisations can only be understood by recognising their functional independence and that the religious organisations need the state just as the states needs them. Mutual acceptance of these complimentary roles in nation building would provide a more enabling and healthy environment for the betterment of the welfare of our people. In this kind of relationship, a demarcation line as to what is political or spiritual, secular or sacred is hard to mark, just as a coin has two sides, yet is still a coin. (3:2.7)
This diplomatic tune adopted by KANU demonstrated that the party was gradually embracing political reforms. The KRC recommendations appeared to be more prophetic than the Kairos Document itself. In retrospect, Kenya’s Kairos Document was theologically remote, with few scriptural citations scattered across the document. Gerald West, a South African biblical scholar, poignantly writes that this Kairos was an ‘expression of the “pastoral concern” of the NCCK because it focused more energy on challenging KANU than theological analysis of the socio-political developments’ (West 2012:4). Thus, it seems that the NCCK borrowed the title from South Africa to repackage its message as a reaction to the KRC recommendations. The authors failed to capture the basis for their prophetic witness, except in the closing remarks:
Our job is not to be concerned with politics or economics for their own sake but with character and personality which cannot be developed except in an environment in which the political scheme and economic frameworks are in accordance with the Divine will. (p. 2)
The Kairos Document was to stimulate reflection on the state of the nation. However, because of its ecumenical nature and because some of the committee members being sympathetic to the ruling party, KANU might have chopped off its ‘prophetic’ vigour. It remained a diplomatic reaction of the church to the KRC report. Unlike the South African Kairos Document, which detailed the myriad challenges of apartheid and the presupposition on which it rested, Kenya’s Kairos was limited in social and theological analysis (Musya 2012). It circumnavigated the social realities and therefore lost its prophetic momentum. However, it served as a transitional paradigm to multi-party politics in 1991 and opened the way for ART.
Reconstruction motif as a complementary paradigm
By and large, the Kairos Document acted as a ‘curtain raiser’ to the reconstruction paradigm of Jesse Mugambi but also complemented CPT. African theologian Jesse Mugambi, born on 06 February 1947 at Kiangoci in present-day Embu County in Kenya, initiated Africa reconstruction theology during All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) convention in Nairobi on 30 March 1990 (Gathogo 2015). During the convention, Mugambi called for a shift in paradigm from liberation to reconstruction discourse (Gathogo 2015). He based his thesis on three historical events: the end of the Cold War, the rebirth of Namibia after attaining political independence in March 1990 and the freedom of Nelson Mandela from life imprisonment (Mugambi 2003:29). For Mugambi, these historical developments marked the end of the liberation motif and welcomed the new dawn of the reconstruction agenda in Africa. While launching ART as the relevant methodological paradigm of African public theology, he critiques liberation discourses as having outlived their usefulness. It was an opportune time for the reconstruction motif. He observes:
In Africa, the theme of exodus made much sense as long as people viewed their oppression in terms of external pharaohs enslaving their subjects. The first generation of Africa’s political leaders were in popular imagery, likened to Moses whose role was to deliver their people from the yokes of foreign pharaohs. This was powerful imagery, and managed to mobilise African peoples and nations against colonial domination, institutionalised racism and cold war propaganda. (Mugambi 2003:29)
Mugambi believes that African liberation and inculturation models had served their purposes following the fall of dictatorial regimes, the transition to multi-party politics and the end of Cold War (Gathogo 2015). The root or foundation of liberation theology in Africa was colonialism and the struggle for political independence. Colonialism was an influential episode in African history whose impact was profoundly felt in every African country. African political leaders such as the biblical Moses used liberation discourse in the struggle for freedom from imperialists. Mugambi observes that the liberation process was entangled with war, violence, blame games, scapegoating and so on (Mugambi 2003:30). This called for a shift in paradigm, as Africans had to rebuild their economies and nations ruined by wars and civil strife. Mugambi (1995) argues that in the post-Cold War period:
[T]he figure of prophet Nehemiah, unlike that of Moses, provides us with a mirror through which we can reflect on our endeavors to rebuild Africa out of the ruins of the wars against racism, colonial domination and ideological branding. (p. 180)
In the call for ART, Mugambi found friends, including Robin Petersen (1991), Villa-Vicencio (1992, 1993), Hannah Kinoti (1997) and Kangude Kä Mana (2002). Kä Mana (2002) views ART as the fourth stage of the development of African Christologies:
[R]econstruction theologies signaled the advent of free post-colonial African thought, devoid of all the problems of pessimism and defeatism, oriented towards the construction of a free and democratic society, nurtured by the big dreams of returning to the historic initiative and propelled by a vigorous energy of responsibility and resourcefulness. (pp. 91–92)
Reinforcing these views, Robin Petersen (1991) declares:
The talk is all about reconstruction, about rebuilding, about new things … from a theology of liberation to a theology of reconstruction, from Exodus to Post-Exilic theology. (p. 18)
In as much as the reconstruction paradigm appeared to be appealing in the post-Cold War period, critics argue that Mugambi naively responded to the socio-political changes in Africa. Others such as Tinyiko Maluleke and Joseph Wandera are also suspicious of the reconstruction agenda. Maluleke in particular is pessimistic about Mugambi’s motive with reconstruction and interrogates its viability. He admits the prominence of the debate when he observes, ‘Reconstruction, development, and democracy are fast becoming as integral to South African political language as the notions of the struggle, revolution and liberation used to’ (Maluleke 1994:245–258). Although Mugambi offers a few biblical and socio-political remedies for his reconstruction paradigm, Maluleke critiques his failure to fully develop them (Maluleke 1996:473). Another significant critique of Mugambi’s reconstruction paradigm comes from Julius Gathogo, who observes that he (Mugambi) thinks that liberation is a historical event that has been surpassed by other paradigms. Similar arguments are advanced by Kapinde, who states that Mugambi’s blurred call for reconstruction denies the second liberation fighters against one-party dictatorship their moment of history in Kenya (Kapinde 2015). In agreement with Gathogo, he argues that ART emerged as a dominant post-Cold War paradigm for articulating African Christian thought, contrary to other trajectories of the 1980s such as African inculturation-liberation theologies, African feminist theology and black South African theology. In the post-democratic dispensation, reconstruction Christologies became the dominant theological motif (Gathogo 2015). The central questions, however, are: Who determines the dominant Christological paradigm in a pluralistic and culturally dynamic society? And who steers that process?
The answers to these questions are inconclusive. However, this study argues that despite ART’s popularity in the 1990s to the early 2000s, it remained a complementary paradigm to CPT. As I have argued elsewhere, liberation and reconstruction motifs are ‘cyclical consecutive theologies’ in Africa (Kapinde 2015:142). They are un-identical twins. Without liberation, there can be no reconstruction. The Prophet Nehemiah, for instance, attempted to reconstruct Jerusalem after decades of social, cultural, economic and political deconstruction. The process of reconstruction begins with liberation and ends with transformation. Put differently, complete liberation cannot be attained without proper reconstruction. As we acknowledge the relevance of the reconstruction debate, one is hard-pressed to understand whether with the so-called ‘New Paradigm’ there will be less need for liberation and other prophetic discourses given the emerging disquiet across the continent regarding the failure of African governments with the youth protests in Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria, and the recent disapproval of the African National Congress (ANC) in the 2024 elections in South Africa. Having reviewed the Kairos motif and ART, this article calls for the renaissance of CPT as a relevant approach to prophetic witness in the 21st century.
Reimagining critical pulpit theology in the post-democratic transition era
The failure to use the ‘Moment of Truth’ as claimed in the Kairos Document 1991 and the call for a paradigm shift to reconstruction theology marked the end of a Kairos for Kenya. Like ART, its short-lived history and failure to capture the imagination of the citizens call for another public theology that can stimulate and direct the church’s prophetic witness in the post-democratic transition era. Against the backdrop of growing dissatisfaction with the church’s prophetic mission in Kenya, Damaris Parsitau summarises this disillusionment by arguing that Christian churches can no longer be described as the voices and conscience of society (Parsitau 2012). The church lost its prophetic voice when they were indicted for having played a role in the 2007–2008 post-election violence.
Before this election, there were indications that church leaders had been compromised by leading politicians. Unlike in the 1980s and 1990s, when they advocated for democratic reforms, the 2007–2008 post-election violence proved that churches could not be trusted by the citizens as impartial arbiters. Ben Knighton (2009) poignantly points out that the churches, having allowed themselves to be co-opted, thus foreclosed any prophetic role. In consideration of their complicity, this article calls for a renaissance of CPT as legitimate because of the emerging public lamentation on the complicity of churches in the country. Commenting on this prophetic vacuum, John Mararo, an Anglican cleric from the Kirinyaga Diocese, argues that ‘critical pulpit preachers’ have gone for a recess, hence the voice of the church is muted (Mararo 2015). Other Anglican clergy including David Kodia of Bondo Diocese, are optimistic that the clergy are still engaged but their sermons largely lack prophetic vigour (Kodia 2017). These submissions point to the fact that there is a pulpit crisis as clerics’ messages do not address the contextual realities of the nation.
The growing disillusionment with the clergy in Africa is not limited to Kenya. In the article ‘Where have all the Prophets Gone?’, J.G. Strydom raises pertinent issues concerning the moribund gospel preached in contemporary churches in South Africa (Strydom 1997). He observes that post-apartheid South Africa is not free of corruption, economic exploitation, xenophobia and discriminatory policies, yet the church is silent. The pulpit silence of South African clergy is well captured by Johan Cilliers (2015), who wonders where prophetic preachers have disappeared. He recounts the prophetic preaching of Desmond Tutu, Allan Boesak and Beyers Naudé during apartheid, and their replacement with those who legitimise the status quo and resist the disruptive influences of the pulpit (Cilliers 2015:374). Like Kenya, many South Africans have lost faith in the church as they search for a new theological identity. The prophetic preaching in Kenya has tremendously declined, as many clerics focus on prosperity theology and resist the temptation to engage in social issues. Although the country has progressed after the 1990s transition to multi-party politics, many unresolved structural barriers undermine democratic consolidation and transformation.
The recent youth protests (Gen Z) that began on 18 June 2024 culminated in an economic revolution. Kenyan youths protested against poor governance characterised by heavy taxation, corruption, ethnicity and unaccounted foreign public debt. During the protests, the youths occupied the parliament, demonstrating their lack of confidence and trust in the legislature and then shifted their focus to churches to cleanse them from corruption and political capture (Christian Daily News 06 August 2024). There was widespread lamentation that the political class had captured churches in Kenya and that clerics used churches as spaces for politik. The youths designed the clarion call #OccupyChurches to block the conspiracy by the clergy and politicians from using churches to legitimise the oppressive economic policies drafted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Many churches that had invited politicians for fundraising initiatives were forced to cancel the events fearing the youths’ wrath.
In broader terms, the Gen Z protests were a significant indictment of the church as the ‘conscience of the nation’, as they struggle to find their political identity and, by extension, recover their lost prophetic voice (Cilliers 2015). Paradoxically, the Gen Z protests offered members of the clergy and churches better opportunities to redeem their prophetic image. To do so, this article proposes the rebirth of CPT as an ecumenical prophetic praxis in the post-democratic transition period. Critical pulpit theology rests on the preacher’s sound knowledge of Christian witness that conforms to God’s will for humanity. In essence, the substance of the prophetic sermons is not adjudicated on their political soundness but exclusively on their contextual and hermeneutical relevance. Thus, contextually-driven biblical hermeneutics can address ethnocracy and widespread corruption. Critical pulpit theology is a pastoral commitment to reading the ‘signs of the times’ (Lk 21:7–36) through a critical lens (Gutiérrez 2006:11). It mediates prophetic praxis in public life, including politics, economics and wider civil society. Critical pulpit preaching creates awareness and transforms the congregation’s worldview and God’s intention for all humanity.
This kind of ‘contextual preaching’ transcended denominational traditions and cultural and confessional boundaries. This brand of theology was well articulated by Gitari, Okullu, Muge and Njoya in their pulpit protests in the 1980s. They were always way ahead of their parishioners in social diagnosis and better understood the socio-political context. Their sermons were eventful and provocative. To use the words of Paul Lehmann in the foreword to Boesak’s book ‘The Figure of God’, such sermons challenge both the preacher and audiences to be faithful and steadfast in bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (Boesak 1982:ix). In the long run, they shed the political quiescence inherited from mission churches for a more critical, constructive and creative participation on the pulpit. The pulpit gradually became the ‘site of the struggles’, hence they elevated the church as a miniature civil society.
Conclusion
This article has argued for the renaissance of CPT to tackle the emerging contemporary challenges Kenya faces. While making this call, the study does not purport that other paradigms, such as reconstruction, liberation or the Kairos theology, are less critical than CPT. Instead, they are complementary. As an ecumenical project, CPT is an inclusive paradigm that embraces other theological trajectories, including ART and liberation discourses. The pulpit is an open platform for constructive dialogue with the word of God over private and public affairs. However, we must be cautious of the imminent danger of pulpit polarisation with all sorts of theology. At the heart of the agitation for political reforms in the 1980s, other pulpit theologies emerged which were vertically oriented with less focus on social affairs. Evangelical churches embraced a state theology that provided ideological legitimation for the KANU government. The evangelical support for the Nyayo philosophy – battered by Christian slogans of love, peace and unity – led to the subjugation and oppression of citizens. It increasingly became evident that the Nyayo of Moi was contrary to the Nyayo of Jesus. Moi had built a political authoritarian system that dominated all spheres of society, limiting citizens’ freedom to define and shape their future. The hardware for constructing such a political regime was a strong security force and the software was the Nyayo philosophy. Critical pulpit theology emerged to challenge this abuse of power by deconstructing authoritarian images and charting the path to a democratic transition. Although lacking in the post-democratic transition period, this theology is still relevant in addressing the myriad governance challenges that triggered the youth (Gen Z) protests. The church can exploit this watershed moment to redefine its prophetic mission and theological identity as a people-centred church whose eschatological vision is to manifest the presence of God in society.
Acknowledgements
Much appreciation to Prof. M.E. Baloyi for his guidance and support throughout this research. I would also like to acknowledge the support from Research Institute for Theology and Religion (RITR), University of South Africa (UNISA), during this study. This article is partially based on the author’s thesis entitled ‘Shifting Pendulum: The Struggle for Prophetic Advocacy in the Anglican Church towards Democratic Transformation of the Kenyan State, 1963-2012’, towards the degree of PhD in Theology, in the Faculty of Theology, University of Basel, Switzerland, on 03 July 2020, with supervisor(s) Prof. Andreas Heuser and Prof. Elisio Macamo.
Competing interests
The author declares that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
Author’s contributions
S.A.K. is the sole author of this research article.
Ethical considerations
This article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects.
Funding information
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Data availability
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are the product of professional research. The article does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency or that of the publisher. The author is responsible for this article’s results, findings and content.
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Footnotes
1. The diverse ethnic backgrounds of the bishops and the relative autonomy of the dioceses from the provincial synod allow the coexistence of considerable variation in theological positions, pastoral styles and political considerations, as exemplified by the three clergy.
2. The NCCK was an ecumenical protestant organisation that brought together many churches, including Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian Church of East Africa.
3. In South Africa, it gave birth to Evangelical witness in South Africa: South African evangelical critique of their own theology and practice (1986); A relevant Pentecostal witness (1988); The road to Damascus: Kairos and conversion (1989); and Violence: The new Kairos (1990). Outside its borders, it motivated other Kairos documents such as The Kairos Central America or the Centroamericano (1988); A Kairos for Kenya (1991), Call for prophetic action: Zimbabwe Kairos (1998), European Kairos Document (1998); Kairos India (2000) and America Kairos (2007), and an attempted development of a Kairos document for Germany and Switzerland.
4. The term ‘Kenya we Want’ was citizens’ call for national dialogue to determine the destiny of the country with regard to issues of governance. However, this call was thwarted by the recommendations of the (KRC, which overruled the idea of a referendum on some issues related to governance.
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