Church morality and mystery source of Ruto’s colossal tithes
What you need to know:
Mr Ruto himself has denied that he’s corrupt. But to many, the denials are lame because it simply defies logic that a person whose public career is known could’ve legitimately made billions out of thin air.
Mr Ruto himself hasn’t helped his case by failing to produce an audited account of his wealth and patrimony, if any.
The law requires that every public officer declare their wealth on the pain of perjury.
That Mr Ruto hasn’t done so leaves the impression that he has something to hide.
The Kenyan Church has a long and chequered history. But this ignominy isn’t unique to Kenya. Messianic religions, of which there are two – Christianity and Islam – have for millennia soaked the earth in human blood. Think of jihads and crusades in the distant past, and genocides and suicide attacks on innocents in our era and you get the point.
POLITICS SEWER
The spreadsheet of religion has often been in the red. It’s historical fact that Christianity and Islam were used to justify the enslavement and colonisation of black Africans. This isn’t to condemn religion, or to deny some of its virtues. But it’s to suggest that like mere human mortals, religion must continually strive to attain a high moral plateau.
I raise the spectre of sin in the Kenyan Church because of the conflation of piety and politics by clerics and corrupt politicians. The sewer of Kenyan politics is visible even to Martians; 55 million kilometres away. That’s why it boggles the mind the Kenyan Church can’t – or purports not to – see the sewer barely one metre away. Is the wilful blindness an act of complicity or pecuniary necessity in the fight over the souls of penitents? Or is there an inherent mendacity in the Kenyan Church? Why do men, and women, of the cloth traffic double talk? Why do they say one thing, but mean another? Why can’t they say what they mean and mean what they say?
In the past several years, there has a been public furore over “donations” by leading politicians of gobs of money to Kenyan churches on Sundays. Jubilee’s William Ruto, the country’s numero dos, has been the main “benefactor” to the Kenyan Church. Every weekend, and sometimes twice on Sundays, Mr Ruto carpet-bombs churches in Central Kenya and Luhya country with wads of cash. The clerics have received the loot as though it was manna from heaven. The mullah isn’t in the thousands, but tens of millions of precious shillings. I should be forgiven for thinking that Mr Ruto has more money than God. That’s one of the reasons why one would dump such colossal sums in the house of God.
DIRTY MONEY
Two moral questions have been raised about what Mr Ruto calls “tithes” but what his critics call “dirty money”. The first is directed at Mr Ruto and his ilk. This is the question – where on Earth does he get the humongous gazillions to plaster all over the Kenyan Church? We know that Mr Ruto, unlike many top leaders, wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth. The self-described “chicken hustler” was born dirt poor. The public narrative is that it’s through chicanery, skulduggery, and theft Mr Ruto has amassed his billions. Whether this is fact, or faction, no one knows. Although I believe the sleuths at NIS know everything. Mr Ruto himself has denied that he’s corrupt.
But to many, the denials are lame because it simply defies logic that a person whose public career is known could’ve legitimately made billions out of thin air. Mr Ruto himself hasn’t helped his case by failing to produce an audited account of his wealth and patrimony, if any. The law requires that every public officer declare their wealth on the pain of perjury.
That Mr Ruto hasn’t done so leaves the impression that he has something to hide. More importantly, it would be foolish for any shrewd businessman to drop money as though it was useless confetti. But when challenged, Mr Ruto avers, tongue-in-cheek, that he’s investing in heaven and no one should tell him how to tithe.
FAUSTIAN BARGAIN
The second, and more important and pivotal question, is directed at the Kenyan Church and the clerics. Why on God’s good earth are godly men and women accepting monies whose source is murky at best and criminal at worst? Would Jesus aid and abet money laundering, if that’s what’s actually going on? Would the traders in the marketplace have bought Jesus for thirty pieces of silver?
Did Jesus not whip money changers and other greedy human gremlins from the temples? Isn’t he, or she, who receives the proceeds of corruption as guilty as the one who gives them? Where is the morality of the church that’s knee-deep in the chain of corruption? To whom shall the corrupt priest confess?
A Faustian bargain is a deal with the devil. It’s a pact done by people without conscience. In it, morality is a word that’s unknown. Partners in such a bargain will do and say anything to benefit themselves. They are devoid of any and all morality. In an ideal world, a Faustian bargain would be the diametric opposite of the Church. If the Church can’t distinguish between a simple right and a simple wrong, then it’s not a house of God, but the Devil’s den. It’s fighting not to save the souls of men, but to win the hearts of Lucifer and his disciples.
Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School and Chair of KHRC. @makaumutua.
