Church lost an opportunity
Weeks ago, when those haunting images of starving women, children and the elderly began flooding the Kenyan media, the secretary-general of the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), a Protestant grouping, issued a press statement calling for help.
The Horn of Africa, including Kenya, is facing what humanitarian organisations say is the worst drought and famine in 50 years. Some 11 million people are affected.
Shortly after the NCCK statement, the bishop-chairman of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission addressed a press conference at which he called for urgent humanitarian assistance to the starving Kenyans, estimated at 3,5 million in the country’s arid regions and in the urban slums.
While the churches issued statements and the government denied anybody had died of hunger, the media and business leaders in Nairobi opted for a remarkably different response to the crisis. They launched a campaign, dubbed Kenyans for Kenya, to raise money to buy food for the starving.
Kenyans for Kenya has turned out to be a massive humanitarian and media operation. All major media outlets continue to carry appeals to Kenyans to donate money to save their brothers and sisters. Several fundraising events have been staged and aired live by the main TV stations.
One of the outstanding contributors was by a police officer based in arid northern Kenya. He was so moved by the disaster that he gave a whole month’s salary.
Every weekend, lorries carrying hundreds of tons of food and other supplies are flagged off from Nairobi to deliver help to the affected areas. The Kenyans for Kenya initiative is being coordinated by various media organisations in collaboration with the Kenya Red Cross Society.
And then just last week, someone wrote a letter to the editor of one of the dailies here wondering what the churches were doing in response to the famine. Certainly, the press statement by NCCK and the news conference by the Catholic bishop were less than adequate. People were dying.
The churches simply missed a great opportunity for practical Christian witness. Since the launch of Kenyans for Kenya, I have caught myself wishing it was an initiative of the churches.
Christianity is, at the end of the day, a religion of compassion. The Final Judgment, as described by Jesus himself, will be about whether one fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, welcomed the stranger and visited the sick and prisoners. That shall be the measure of righteousness (Mt 25:31-46).
Jesus emphasises the same point in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10) and in several other passages in the Bible.
I have no doubt that most of the people who have contributed to Kenyans for Kenya and other kitties to feed our starving countrymen and women are Christians. But that does not excuse churches—as institutions—from taking practical steps as Jesus himself would.
The latest census puts Kenya’s Christians at 80% of its 40 million people. A humanitarian campaign spearheaded by the churches would have been a roaring success. The churches merely needed to create a platform and ask Kenyans to make donations.
What a mighty gesture of evangelisation it would have been! In addition, the churches would have played an effective role in promoting national unity by bringing together Kenyans to respond to the needs of their needy compatriots.
The initiative would also have gone a long way to restore the face of the Church in public life in Kenya. There would have been a lot of positive media coverage.
I have previously written in this space about the Catholic Church’s serious image problem in Kenya arising from its perceived partisan role in the politics leading to the post-election violence of 2007 and its opposition to the Constitution ahead of the referendum last year.
A feed-the-hungry campaign organised by the churches would have yielded plenty of fruit for the Church of Jesus Christ. But the opportunity was lost. I hope the lesson is learnt.
- Why the ‘Prosperity Gospel’ Thrives in Africa - November 15, 2018
- What were the gospel writers up to? - January 16, 2017
- Church lost an opportunity - September 4, 2011