Clergy who take ‘dirty’ offerings, tithe cleanse and legitimise graft

Finally, the cat is out of the bag. Churches have been lamenting government’s refusal to reinstate tax exemptions on their imports but their complaints have fallen on deaf ears.

An Anglican minister, the Venerable Dr Joyce Kariuki of ACK Karen, while preaching at the Orthodox Seminary in Riruta recently, gave the background on why churches lost the privilege. She narrated how church leaders had visited then-President Mwai Kibaki to bemoan the untold misery the loss of the privilege had wrought to their ministry — or so they claimed.

If the clerics had expected a sympathetic ear, they instead left the President with egg on their face. For, after listening to them keenly, Mr Kibaki told them point-blank that they had inflicted the reversal on themselves. The clerics had turned the privilege into a cash cow; they would import cars duty-free, ostensibly for the service of the church, only to sell them for personal gain.

So, what was Rev Kariuki doing at the Orthodox seminary? The Universal Church just concluded the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (January 18-25). In its endeavour to promote unity among the world’s Christian churches, the Week of Prayer is planned jointly by the Geneva-based predominantly Protestant World Council of Churches and the Vatican. The service is held in one church and the sermon delivered by a minister from the other.

The theme for this year, “Justice, only justice, you shall pursue”, is from the biblical Book of Deuteronomy, and was chosen by the Church in Indonesia for its powerful message of promoting truth, equality and unity.

CONDEMN

In delivering the message, Rev Kariuki did not disappoint. She deftly and unabashedly pointed out lack of honesty in the men (and women) of the cloth as exemplified by the car exemptions anecdote.

A priest associated with fine-tuning of the theme noted that the annual prayers were happening “in a world where corruption, greed and injustice bring about inequality and division.

“We are called together to form a united witness for justice and for Christian Unity that becomes a means of Christ’s healing grace for the brokenness of the world. Only by heeding Jesus’s prayer ‘that they all may be one’ can we witness to living unity in diversity.”

But that is the prayer; the reality on the ground is different.

Rev Kariuki exposed shortcomings within the church that are evident in rank corruption, not just in the secular world, but in the church. This even as she recognised that “justice must start in the House of the Lord”.

The cleric virtually turned the gun on fellow clergy, who must be challenged for receiving support from corrupt people. The latter then brazenly take their places in the front pews, as if to challenge ministers to condemn corruption when they are its beneficiaries. Ministers must walk the talk, so that those looking at them can follow them.

INJUSTICE

“It’s about time we did things the right way,” Rev Kariuki told the chapel packed with Presbyterians, Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists and the Orthodox hosts.

When clergy benefit from proceeds of bribery, they undermine their authority to speak against it. Stamping out graft starts with practising integrity.

Bribery is a leading cause of injustice in Kenya, and although the Judiciary stands condemned for letting it thrive as poor people struggle for years in courts for recompense, the clergy are silent because they are beneficiaries of the bribery culture.

The battle in Kenya is between the haves and the have-nots and the best-placed party to change that is the church — but only if clergy can stand up to be counted.

Ms Kweyu is a consultant revise editor with the Daily Nation. [email protected]