Men of tribe are on the loose, beware

Many readers of the Sunday Nation may have been intrigued by juxtapositioning of Emeka-Mayaka Gekara’s report on the support of certain clerics for their tribal communities, with Murithi Mutiga’s criticism of Christian missionaries for failing to support the Mau Mau.

These rebels represented only a section of the Kikuyu tribe, whose activities were mercifully cut short by faithful Kikuyu Christians who suffered grievously at their hands.

The Dean of the Faculty of Theology at St. Paul’s University, Prof Joseph Galgalo, would be the first to admit that the country was saved from complete collapse in the Mau Mau emergency precisely because, for many of the Kikuyu tribe, Christianity and not ethnicity defined their identity.

As a result of the hard work of pioneer missionaries, a new society whose allegiance transcended loyalty to tribe and race, was just beginning to take root.

This new society, the members of which have been given a new perspective through the lordship of Christ, is in danger of losing its influence under the tutelage of so-called men of God who are in reality no more than men of tribe.

Such men should be denied the use of the pulpit as their influence will only lead to further division.

However, much blame must be attached to journalists who have betrayed those brave Christians who rejected the easy path of collaborating with the Mau Mau despite much intimidation and torture.

Unfortunately we seem to be rather short of brave journalists, and so have a generation of ill-informed readers who have been subjected to a constant barrage of anti-Christian and anti-British propaganda.

As a result they now look to their tribe rather than to Christ for salvation.

The consequences of such misdirected loyalty are now staring us in the face.

R.A. Massie-Blomfield, Nairobi.