Choose to build up, not to tear down...

We must choose 
To build up where others choose to tear down
And to pray to the God of love 
To pour into our hearts
An abiding love 
For every child woman and man
Who calls this country home
For only then shall our hands
Find true strength together
To lift up this our land and nation
So that the dark days of despair
Can finally begin to give way
To our season of hope.

Listening to the silence... waging peace.

Kenyans need to be still for a moment and learn once again to listen to the silence, to reconnect with our collective soul, and in so doing to adequately prepare for the real battles that lie ahead. Only then can we have the presence of mind, when the moment of truth comes, to wage peace instead of war and in so doing to save our country and our conscience from ultimate destruction.

Shining our light in the darkness....

It is dark in Kenya today.... very dark. The storm clouds are gathering, the war drums getting louder. Almost too loud for us to remember that this nation was founded by heroes and sheroes who, though outnumbered and outgunned, still stood up for their humanity and their dignity. Though the freedom they fought for was shortly thereafter stolen from them, still they left us with a legacy of choosing to die on our feet than to live on our knees.

Now the call of history summons us once more to stand up and be counted. But we shall not be provoked into shedding innocent blood. We shall not be incited to return hate for hate. We shall instead rise up to nonviolently but firmly and actively defend those first principles for which our war of independence was fought and on which our nation was founded, the principles captured by the sacred words of our national anthem. That for our children if not for us, Kenya shall yet be preserved as a land where they shall dwell in unity, peace and liberty, and where plenty will be found not just within our physical borders, but within the heart of every man, woman and child.

Marching around the walls of Jericho...

In this season when the word is on every tongue, I have made a covenant with God not to speak about corruption. Not because it does not exist. On the contrary, like most Kenyans, I am overwhelmed and intimidated by the seemingly impenetrable walls which stand on the way to our land of promise, of which corruption is just a part. But I am marching silently around and around these walls and waiting for the trumpet to sound. Then and only then will I join other men and women of goodwill in lending my voice to the shout that will once and for all bring the walls tumbling down. But make no mistake, the walls will come down. It's not a question of whether but when. The challenge that lies before us now is to march around them in quiet dignity and when the time comes, to shout together, aloud and with firm resolve, and to confidently take our country back never to give it up again.

We shall overcome... Amkeni ndugu zetu!

JESUS AND JUSTICE: A 10 Point Reflection

By Njonjo Mue

Recently, I've been reflecting on the subject of Jesus and Justice. I am still walking along this exciting journey, but I have reached a few tentative conclusions which I'd like to share with you:

1. Our God is a God of justice. As the Old Testament reminds us, justice is the foundation of his throne.

2. Many people, and even whole societies, that claim to be Christian deny this foundational attribute of God in their actions, if not by their words. They preach and practice an incomplete gospel of individual salvation without any reference to the social implications of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. 

3. Whether you embrace the purely individual gospel or the holistic gospel referred to in 2. above depends in part on your Christology and your eschatology.

4. If your Christology emphasises only the deity of Jesus Christ and his triumphant resurrection, you are likely to miss out on what God has to say about the pursuit of justice in the here and now and instead merely focus on defending Christ's deity while ignoring or excusing injustice and encouraging yourself and victims of injustice to await the second coming of Christ when all wrongs shall be made right. 

5. Your eschatology is also likely to point only to a future end-time  when all things will be made right with the return of Christ instead of getting actively involved in the pursuit of a more just world in the here and now. 

6. But if in addition to acknowledging the deity, resurrection and return of Christ, we also recognise him as a very human servant of God who spoke prophetically to the unjust religious and political authorities of his time,

7 And if we can be inspired by his bodily suffering due to the injustice he encountered and endured, yet overcame,

8. And if our eschatology not only looks to the establishment of God's kingdom in some distant future, but as an ongoing and unfolding reality, 

9. Then we begin to see ourselves not just as lucky members of a privileged club of the 'saved' whose tickets to heaven have been booked and who can therefore sit back and relax while we await the trip aboard 'Rapture Airlines'; we instead come to understand our mandate to work for the creation of a new cosmic and social order in the here and now that is radically different from the one over which the powers and principalities of this world preside. 

10. As the author Jerry Folk writes in his book, 'Doing Theology, Doing Justice', "Those who live in and preside over this world are perhaps willing to accept the idea of God's reign coming sometime - but not here, and not now. Yet it is precisely this here-and-nowness that Jesus announces.... The life, death and resurrection of Jesus calls the new creation into existence here and now, in the midst of the old.... The old is already beginning to pass away. It is the presence of this end-time reality here and now that principalities and powers object to, not the abstract idea of an end time."

DR. WILLY MUTUNGA: A FRIEND, A MENTOR, A SOLDIER OF JUSTICE

I was privileged on 18th July 2016 to say a few words on behalf of ICJ-Kenya and the wider civil society community at a farewell party for Dr. Willy Mutunga as he retires as Kenya's Chief Justice. Here's a transcript of what I had to say:

Thank you Willy for mentoring many of us, for me, from when I was a foot soldier in the street battles in the early push for a people-driven constitution-making process in the mid-1990s. Although we were impatient, hot-blooded, young men and women then, we went out onto the streets knowing that you, our leaders, always had our backs, and we could be patient with your leadership as we knew that throughout, you had the interests of Kenyans at heart.

On behalf of ICJ-Kenya, whose board I am privileged to chair, I wish to thank you that during your leadership of the judiciary, you have made life much easier for us and for all other CSOs that work on judicial reforms. You have made justice more accessible to the poor and the marginalised by operationalising the Court Users Committees (CUCs), and you have demystified the office of the of the Chief Justice by maintaining an open-door policy. Thank you for the work you have done to humanise the judiciary.

I want to congratulate KHRC for convening such a diverse range of civil society actors here tonight. There are colleagues here whom I have not seen in years! This is a testament to the many colleagues who call Willy a mentor and a friend. But while we meet here tonight to celebrate one Willy, I remind us that just two weeks ago, this community came together again to mourn another Willy - Willy Kimani who alongside his client Josephat Mwenda and their taxi driver Joseph Muiruri - was brutally murdered in a case of extra-judicial killings allegedly by the police. Their tragic deaths are a stark reminder that although we now have one of the best constitutions in the world, the struggle to create a truly just, peaceful and democratic society is far from won. We re-commit ourselves to this struggle and to staying true to the cause until the battle for constitutionalism is won.

Freedom fighters tend to make terrible post-independence leaders This is because they come to office with a sense of entitlement and once they discover that they do not have what it takes to lead their followers in the new dispensation, they try to make up for it by unlawfully extending their stay in power. Our continent is not short of examples of this kind of leader.

But Willy Mutunga has proved to be the exception. Not only was he a freedom fighter offering great leadership to the constitution-making process in the 1990s, but he went on to become a great first Chief Justice in the new constitutional dispensation. And when he had made his contribution, although many would have been delighted to have him stay on until his retirement age in a year's time, he chose to leave in good time to give the JSC time to recruit his replacement well ahead of the next General Election. ICJ-K expects no less transparency in the process of recruiting the next CJ than the process that gave us Willy Mutunga.

And so tonight, as a great man leaves to go and do more great things, I am not here to say farewell because Willy Mutunga, you are really not going anywhere. But as a solder of justice, you are merely going on to march with a different detachment of the same army to which we all belong. For now I can only wish you God's blessings and guidance in that next season of your life of service to humanity.

I thank you

DP Ruto Chief Guest at Alliance Fundraiser? #NotInMyName!

For the better part of a year, I have tried to keep off what might be perceived as any attack on our political leadership, but what I am writing here is not about politics or a political leader but about my Alma Mater, the school that shaped me into who I am today. And so, try as I might, I cannot remain silent at such a time as this. 

Alliance High School was built on a strong foundation of Christian service to society. It is not by accident that the school's motto is 'Strong to Serve.' When I attended the school in the 1980s, the values of discipline, honesty, integrity and hard work were drilled into us as being inseparable from any authentic experience of being human. It is no wonder that all the blood, sweat and tears that had been invested in building the school since it was founded in 1926 resulted in consistent excellent performance in both curricular and extra-curricular activities.

This month, the school celebrates its 90th birthday. For some reason the school has decided to invite Deputy President William Ruto as the chief guest for the launch of its fundraising campaign. This notwithstanding the fact that this individual has very many question marks hanging over his head, from the unfinished ICC trial to questions about the sources of his money.

I was taught during my days at the school that the end could never justify the means. But it would appear that in the Alliance of 2016, the end very much justifies the means! The guiding principle of today's decision-makers at the school, be they the Board of Directors, the school administration or the Old Boys Club, would appear to be 'All we want is your money... no questions asked.'

Former School Chaplain, The late Rev. F.G. Welch and his wife Eileen are only two of the luminaries in the history of the school that have paid a high price for what they believed in. After decades of dedicated service to the School, they were unceremoniously deported from Kenya for standing on principle and refusing to dis-invite politician Kimani Wa Nyoike, who had fallen out with Moi, to a meeting of the school's Theological Society of which Rev. Welch was the patron. They must be turning in their graves at the thought of how far the old school has compromised its principles and moral standards.

I am only one of thousands of students who have passed through Alliance High School on their way to going on to take their place on the stage of human affairs, but to the extent that my voice counts, I strongly urge, even at this late hour, that my old school rescinds this invitation. And if it does not, I want to place it on record here that the invitation to DP William Ruto to be the Chief Guest on the 90th Founders Day is done #NotInMyName.