A conversation recorded by Reuters in February 2015 chronicles a message the former US President Barack Obama told the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington that Christians had been guilty of violent crimes as well as Muslims. For this, the report says, “President Obama ran into a storm of criticism when he compared atrocities committed by Islamist terrorists with those committed by the Crusaders and the Inquisition, and pointed out that US defenders of slavery and the lynching of black people justified their arguments on religious grounds. Conservative critics accused him of being un-American and un-Christian.”
The writer @RevMarkWoods as he is known on Twitter observed in this detailed article that every time Obama mentioned religion he got in to trouble. Like Kenyans of upcountry descent who are born and bred in the Coast whose authenticity is constantly called into question by indigenous inhabitants whenever they lay claim to Coastal citizenship, only “a sizeable number of Americans seriously believe(d) that (he) Obama (was) really a Muslim, in spite of all the evidence.” Just like his “… Christian faith (was) constantly called into question” Coastals face a similar fate upcountry and would never for example attempt to contest for public political positions in Counties upcountry.
The observation by the article that “If the flames were troubled, Obama poured oil onto the flames” by making the said remarks rang true, a situation I would like to compare with the one Hezron Awiti Bolo found himself in when he contested for the position of Governor in Mombasa County with the firm belief that Coastal citizens would look at him favorably along the lines of the fortunes that met Shakeel Shabir of Kisumu Town East and Hon. Junet Mohamed of Suna both elected in Luo dominated Constituencies despite their identities as outsiders. Awiti lost his Nyali parliamentary seat as he lost the contest for Governor.
But why were Americans enraged by Obama’s remarks? The article says, “…. he compared bad things done by Christians to bad things done by Muslims.” A former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore said: “The president’s comments this morning at the prayer breakfast are the most offensive I’ve ever heard a president make in my lifetime. He has offended every believing Christian in the United States. This goes further to the point that Mr. Obama does not believe in America or the values we all share.” There is a ring of hypocrisy in every word these conceited Christians directed at Obama; Rev. Woods and Reuters opine and I agree wholly. I have quoted this article extensively, and feel immensely indebted to Woods and Reuters for this license.
Let me draw some parallels with Kenya which is why I took this liberty to restate the points made by Obama’s critics. “Essentially, as the author observes, there are three things, these complaints by American Christians expose: first, they seem to insinuate that, the Crusades and the Inquisition weren’t that bad, really! second, they were a long time ago; and third, they were obviously un-Christian while the actions of Islamic State are not obviously un-Muslim.” Like Seriously? The good Reverend intones as would a new generation Kenyan to the Kenyan hypocrisy that this article reminds me. The Christian exceptionalism in America is every inch similar to Christian exceptionalism in Kenya. Its vociferousness is however nothing near the Kenyan experience that is coloured by Kikuyu entitlement. I will come back to this later.
But first what was the Inquisition?
“The Inquisition was a set of institutions within the Roman Catholic Church charged with preserving it from heresy. It did this by means of burning people at the stake, torture through hanging people from chains, the rack, the thumbscrews and other measures too gruesome to describe on a family website. The idea was that it was better for the body to suffer than the soul to perish. Protestants bought in to the idea as well, though not to the same extent; both faiths persecuted people suspected of witchcraft, for instance, with up to 100,000 executions between 1400 and 1700. The last execution was in Spain, as late as 1826.”
And the Crusades?
The article confirms that from about 1095-1291 a period of about 200 years, “several expeditions by Western countries to the Holy Land to reclaim it from the Muslims, who had taken it from the declining Byzantine empire” took place. The Crusader kingdom of Outremer was a small regional power for around 200 years before the Franks were overwhelmed. On their way to the Holy Land the crusaders often massacred Jews (around 5,000 in Germany) and other Christians (as they passed through the lands of the Byzantines they assumed the inhabitants were Muslims because their crosses were of a different shape, and butchered them). The great historian of the Crusades, Stephen Runciman, described it as a “barbarian invasion”. Richard the Lion Heart notoriously ordered the killing of 2,700 Muslim prisoners after the siege of Acre, with their wives and children. In 1204 the crusaders sacked the Christian city of Constantinople itself. The total death toll from all causes is estimated at around 1.7 million”. The final observation that, “Islamic State still has some way to go,” summarizes the stark reality, but as the author says, you “don’t say that at a National Prayer Breakfast.”
And slavery?
“Bible-believing Christians defended slavery in the US – and, contra William Wilberforce, in the UK – for many years, just as they defended apartheid in South Africa. This all seems pretty clear. Christians have obviously done horrible things, and so have Muslims.” One would think that Christians would acknowledge and bow in shame when these evil actions are mentioned. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, had a contrary view, that “The evil actions that [Obama] mentioned were clearly outside the moral parameters of Christianity itself and were met with overwhelming moral opposition from Christians.”
I agree with Rev. Woods that Russell was wrong and that slavery persisted for hundreds of years because most Christians thought it was fine. “Most Christians thought that heretics and witches should be executed and that it was OK to kill Muslims because they were the enemy.” Obama’s point was that Christians did these things sincerely believing they were doing the right thing. Christians always find it necessary to justify violence in their own interest or their national interests, and such is their collective shrug that is characteristic in Kenya every time a Muslim youth or cleric is executed on allegations of being a terrorist suspect. One Christian Pastor in Mombasa even suggested at one time that they be allowed to carry firearms to protect them from possible Muslim attackers. The KDF incursion in Somalia is seen by most Muslims as an invading Christian army whose stated mission is to defend ‘Kenyan’ interests by killing Muslims they believe to be members of Al-Shabaab terror group in Somalia.
How the KDF ‘crusaders’ tell a Muslim who is engaged in a Jihad from one who is a good citizen living peacefully is difficult to imagine, but one thing that is true is that Kenya is losing many young soldiers to this senseless war just like the Somalia ‘terrorists’ are being ‘stopped’ by the KDF. Historians narrate how ‘Political Christianity’ attempted to establish the Kingdom of God through violent revolution, in the English Civil War and China’s Taiping Rebellion (1850-64), both thought to have cost 30 million lives. As observed by Woods, save for the Lords Resistance Army and its depredations, it is unthinkable that Christians would do this, while a larger number of Muslims seem attracted to such ideas. These presentiments however ignore the fact that these groups are not homogenous categories and it would help to contextualize each situation. That Obama’s point must be understood within its proper context, “He was saying that religion of whatever brand can be perverted and used to justify terrible crimes, and that rather than painting Christians as ‘good’ and Muslims as ‘bad’, we should recognise that we are all sinners who can be tempted to use faith for bad ends.” It is the reaction to his words that I agree with Woods, “is really, really worrying, because it shows that a lot of people assume that he was attacking Christianity when really he was just asking Christians to think a little harder and be a bit humbler. It reflects a blinkered tribalism and a lack of the most elementary capacity for self-criticism.”
Let me return to our backyard and Kikuyu exceptionalism. When President Uhuru Kenyatta speaking at the funeral service of Mama Hannah Mudavadi on 9th January 2021 in Vihiga County, posed a rhetorical question on whether it was time for other tribes – other than the two that have done so – to rule the country he invited instant wrath mostly from his Mount Kenya backyard. Susan Mugwe, a political economist writing in the Star was at pains to explain the slippery slope of what she called the cancel culture against the Kikuyu and Kalenjins in an article “Tribes and presidency: Uhuru, Will cancel culture be your fifth legacy?” This ire only comparable to what Obama experienced for calling out Christians in the US; was swift, “tribes don’t rule, people do”, “that the two ‘tribes’ have ruled this nation courtesy of the democratic system of governance that we settled on, so that it’s the process of democracy we should deal with, not lay blame on its products” i.e. “… change the process, if you are unhappy with the products!”
Like the American Christians for whom the inquisition and crusades, weren’t so bad or were really distant in memory; the hypocrisy here is at another level. What these narratives ignore is the genesis of the post-colonial state in which the Imperial President Jomo Kenyatta used a Kiambu mafia that included Mbiyu Koinange his brother in law, its de facto leader, Njoroge Mungai, his nephew and James Gichuru KANU Chair during Kenyatta detention years, to establish, oversee, firmly and consolidate power within this cabal a triumph they boasted about by saying “Uthamaki ndugakera Chania” (The political Kingdom will never see the light of day beyond River Chania euphemism for leadership never going beyond Kiambu to Muranga)
Of course the oath taking that took place in 1969 mostly around Gatundu to bind the Kikuyu community to defend its Uthamaki from “Nyamu cia ruguru) i.e. animals from Western Kenya came on the heels of mysterious deaths and political assassinations to cement Uthamakism and ensure only Kikuyu were entitled to rule Kenya. Tom Mboya, Argwins Kodhek, Ram Kapila, Ronald Ngala and J. M. Kariuki effable, brilliant and charismatic politicians all met their deaths on the whims of this ideology of Uthamakism. After cancelling all these illustrious sons of Kenya to stay at the top, it is inconceivable that one can argue that “all are equal before the law, and that this equality includes full and equal enjoyment of all rights and fundamental freedoms, including equal opportunities in political, economic, cultural and social spheres?”
If being at the top does not benefit one’s community with plum appointments, lucrative national tenders or immunity from arrests and prosecution, why did Uhuru’s call at Mama Hanna’s funeral raise a storm? It is difficult to see when you have a leg-up on other communities, that is why today Chief Justice Nominee Martha Koome should be seen as Meru, House Speaker Muturi as Mbeere with a President who is Kikuyu and Heads of KDF, Attorney General, Central Bank, KRA among others be seen as competent and deserving in a country of 40 million plus neer-do-wells. Kikuyu exceptionalism justifies its actions by equating its interests with that of the nation. That we should not discuss this national question because we will be climbing a slippery slope, opening an eco-chamber, unravelling a Pandora’s box that will bleed and spread its toxicity in larger spaces. That we will be launching a cancel culture that will spiral out of control, that will diminish our collective ability to relate with people whose origin differs from our own. And yet this is what Uthamaki has practiced since 1963. The Kikuyu community only employs their own, votes for their own, chooses their own as partners, buy from their own but are happy to use others as consumers of their economic empire as tenants, workers or hand men. Remember they told us they have “tyranny of numbers” but don’t want us to open the Pandora’s box in which our limits to freedoms are cancelled.
Is 2022 our year of getting the ‘genie’ out of the bottle? Welcome Kenyans.
