The Church and Kanu

Church involvement in the protection of civil liberties began in 1986 over objections to replacement of the secret ballot with a queuing system. From the very beginning, there were divisions within the religious community. Although the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) was the first to speak publicly about loss of civil liberties, some member churches disagreed with the group's position and left the fold.

The NCCK's membership decreased appreciably. In 1986, when the NCCK announced that church leaders and their followers would boycott elections that used the queuing system and published a critique of queuing in Beyond , the church publication, at least three member churches broke with the group. The bishop of the African Independent Pentecostal Church said the NCCK was against African culture. The Gospel Church and Association of Baptist Churches of Nyeri announced their support of KANU. The head of the NCCK set the tone for the majority of the churches, however, when he noted: "The question of disloyalty does not arise . . . debate is a healthy exercise. If a country cannot debate an issue of national significance, we shall be denying ourselves the very roots of democracy."^[54] Over the next four years, the Anglican Church of the Province of Kenya (CPK) and the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) played a major role in sustaining discussion of civil liberties and the restriction of political space when public defender groups, such as the Law Society of Kenya, had succumbed to harassment.

The NCCK and the Reverend Alexander Kipsang Muge of the CPK's Eldoret diocese led the attack on queuing and rapidly attracted fire from KANU and from the Office of the President. Rift Valley political leaders came together at a KANU rally in early 1987 to attack Muge, who had trespassed all the more on the president's patience because his diocese included Moi's home area. Muge replied with fighting words. "I shall not protest against the violation of human rights in South Africa if I am not allowed to protest the violation of human rights in my own country," he declared. The mention of South Africa was, of course, a red flag. Muge persisted, and in a sermon spelled out his understanding of his role, pointing out: "I say things that other people don't want to say simply because they will get into trouble with the politicians."^[55]

Muge's remarks won the attention and support of both Anglican and Episcopal leaders around the world, including the archbishop of Canterbury. They created a tactical and stylistic example for other religious communities to follow. The international press responded quickly, alerted to the significance of the church actions by Muge. The BBC broadcast Muge's sermon about the role of the church, allowing Muge to reach many Kenyans who would otherwise not have heard the remarks. The CPK and the NCCK moved quickly to mobilize their international networks and keep the spotlight on the issues raised and on their members, offering a modicum of protection in a dangerous political environment. It also created a new form of political communication,

the sermon, which church leaders soon learned to mimeograph and tape for distribution, in the belief that the government was still wary of censoring religious speech.

The churches rapidly broadened their criticisms to include not only queuing but also the detention of political opponents and the obstacles to debate created by a one-party political system. Indeed, a limited and tenuous call for multi-party democracy issued earlier and more clearly from the churches and the legal profession than from any other groups, although Muge himself never made an explicit demand for legalization of opposition parties. Reverend Timothy Njoya of the PCEA was arrested briefly in 1988 for a sermon that proposed the holding of a large kamukunji, or council, with amnesty for the country's dissidents, to give all a chance to talk. Bishop Henry Okullu offered the first unequivocal endorsement of a multi-party system in early May 1990, giving a push to Rubia and Matiba. Bishop Okullu had long criticized the KANU leadership and had once referred to some of the leaders as "court poets."^[56]

Church activity increased sharply in 1989–90. A New Year's sermon by Reverend Timothy Njoya drew the first public parallels between events in Eastern Europe and the political situation on the African continent, for which he attracted Minister Elijah Mwangale's ire and demands that he be detained without trial. Eighteen Catholic bishops subsequently signed a pastoral letter urging political liberalization and Archbishop Manasses Kuria of the CPK issued a statement calling for overhaul of the electoral system, attacking corruption and forced harambee contributions, and drawing attention to the plight of the poor. Okullu urged a two-term limit on the tenure of any individual in the presidency. Despite virulent government attacks against the churches and KANU claims that Mwakenya had friends among the clerics, the government did not move decisively to stop the activity. (It should be noted, however, that the man who started it all, Bishop Alexander Muge, died in a car crash in Eldoret in mid 1990.)