especially on contentious issues , which in our circumstances largely tend to be political . The less said about the state the church in Kenya today , the better . The church ’ s departed luminaries such as Bishop Alexander Muge , Archbishop Manasses Kuria , Bishop Henry Okullu and Father John Anthony Kaiser must be turning in their graves .
Nonetheless , the question must be asked , if the church is unable to be trusted in an increasingly politicized and ethicized environment such as that we now find ourselves in then where do we go from here ?
There are seemingly insurmountable political and socio-economic challenges we face that demand urgent attention . Critically , they require a bi-partisan and collective approach to solving them because no one person or entity has a monopoly on ideas . Public participation is meant to be at the heart of decision making at all levels of governance . The ever-increasing cost of living , runaway inflation , the colossal debt burden , food insecurity , corruption , inefficient public services , and bad governance , all call for far-reaching input from different stakeholders .
Kenya is at an inflection point . There is a lot of dissatisfaction in the country at the moment and it is not confined to the way
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Why would a government confident that it won the elections - as tightly contested as they were - act in a manner to suggest that it is unable to govern by appearing to neuter independent institutions within the Executive and irregularly co-opting large swathes of the Legislature , and even the Church ?
our politics plays out . The truth is , there is a critical mass of our population that feels left out in terms of its political , social , and economic development . Simply put , they do not trust those mandated to lead to improve their lives . Neither do they trust the institutions tasked with governing them . These frustrations are manifesting themselves in the protests as well as the increasing acts of lawlessness across the country . We should be extremely concerned , as the very idea of Kenya as a burgeoning nation state is at great risk . These are very testing times .
I will not speak to the increasing pleas from different sections of society to have the country ’ s two main political protagonists reach out to each other and talk . I will however point out that before we ask those in the political space to work on their trust issues , we as a people must also do better . We need to be more open and transparent for instance in our business dealings . We need to treat the most vulnerable in our society with the dignity they deserve .
And indeed , we must strive to be a more inclusive society in which everyone can thrive without interference from any individual or institution . Perhaps then we may start to see an increase in the levels of trust in all our interactions .
Walter Nyabundi is a Social Researcher . You can commune with him on this or related matters via email at : Nyabundiw @ gmail . com .
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