Monday, May 18, 2009

Cardinal Njue’s leadership faces litmus test

While the National Council of Churches of Kenya has been unequivocal and consistent in its criticism of the Grand Coalition Government even calling for fresh elections, there has been curious silence from the Catholic Church, especially John Cardinal Njue.

Cardinal Njue, who leads a flock of more nine million, is perceived to be oddly quite and conveniently ambiguous on hot issues bedevilling the political union.

This is much unlike his predecessors as archbishops of Nairobi - Ndingi Mwana a ’Nzeki and Maurice Otunga – who frequently and daringly took on authorities on issues of corruption and oppression.

Cardinal Njue’s manner of engagement has caused critics to wonder whether he has entered some form of dalliance with the government, particularly the presidency.

The NCCK has described President Kibaki as moribund and Prime Minister Raila Odinga as ineffective. The umbrella organisation of protestant churches fell short of calling for mass action against what they consider a dysfunctional government.

Cardinal Njue, who is the leader of the Catholic Church in Kenya and also the archbishop of Nairobi, is the most influential spiritual leader in the country. The Catholic Church has four archdioceses and 23 dioceses in Kenya.

The other clerics with comparable clout are the head of the Anglican Church, Dr Eliud Wabukala, and Chief Kadhi Ahmed Kassim.

Cardinal Njue earned public admiration when he teamed up with clerics such as Dr Timothy Njoya of PCEA and the Rev Mutava Musyimi – then at the NCCK – to admonish the Kanu dictatorship on violation of human rights but today, there is growing argument that he (Cardinal Njue) has stepped back, a position he denies.

He has also been accused of being sympathetic to President Kibaki’s PNU wing of the grand coalition.

“I have spoken up on every important national debate from corruption, reforms, and injustice,” he said in an interview with the Saturday Nation at his Tumaini House office on Saturday.
He rejects accusations that he is sympathetic to PNU.

“I have never been. I am not and will never be affiliated with any political group or party as a matter of principle. That is our mode of operation.”

He reckons that the role of the church is to help coalition leaders - President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga - to put their heads together and focus on that which is good for the country.

And to ensure this, the Catholic Church has been frequently putting out statements on the slow progress of the coalition’s reform agenda, “I have been calling for national healing and asking President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga to work together. That cannot be the position of a partisan.”

The impression that the cleric is a Kibaki sympathiser is rooted in the position he took on the majimbo debate in the run-up to the 2007 General Election.

Majimbo push

He called on the country to reject those pushing for majimbo, warning that the federal governance system was a recipe for ethnic violence. The push for majimbo was one of ODM’s campaign planks.

Some pundits think he was right on the majimbo debate. Others reckon he was partisan.

But one thing is clear: his stand on majimbo continues to shape the way a significant population of Kenyans – Catholic and non-Catholic – interpret his messages on politics even today.

By calling on the Catholic faithful to reject those supporting majimbo, Cardinal Njue was seen as endorsing President Kibaki’s Banana side, which opposed federalism. His stand split the Catholic faithful, with some bishops denouncing it.

Kisumu’s Archbishop Zacchaeus Okoth and Bishop Peter Kairo of Nakuru said the cardinal’s position was a personal statement because the issue had not been discussed at meeting of all bishops.

The Catholic leaders normally issue official communication in the form of pastoral letters after a meeting of all bishops in what is called an Episcopal Conference. The cardinal chairs the conference.

Ethnic card

And being from Embu District, Cardinal Njue was seen to be playing the ethnic card, backing President Kibaki on the majimbo issue, while the Archbishop Okoth group was seen as a front for Raila, who comes from Nyanza.

The fact that the Catholic Church had endorsed the Bomas draft constitution, which advocated the majimbo system, did not help his case. The cardinal was a Constitution of Kenya Review Commission national delegate at the Bomas of Kenya, representing the Catholic Church in 2004 after Archbishop John Njenga retired.

Some Pentecostal church leaders accused him of being a “central Kenya mouth-piece” in the Catholic church. They advised him to allow his flock to vote with their conscience.
But he says those holding the view that he supported PNU “misinterpreted” his stand.

“I have no apologies to make on the majimbo stand. I stood for what I thought was right at that time and what was important for national unity.”

He faults the push for fresh elections warning that if the country goes to the polls before key constitutional, land and electoral reforms are effected, it would experience worse violence than last year.

The majimbo talk was partly blamed for the killing of hundreds of Kenyans and displacement of thousands in the Rift Valley following the disputed 2007 presidential election. He says the debate created a “sense of entitlement by certain groups to resources such land and worked up their emotions.”

Emotive majimbo

His critics argue that by making a personal declaration on the emotive majimbo issue, Cardinal Njue clearly antagonised a section of his flock, particularly ODM supporters who supported the idea.

There is also the argument that by talking a partisan stand on the issue, he held himself captive and killed any sense of neutrality in his voice.

Some bishops claim whenever he makes statements, particularly on national politics, his views are at variance with sections of the Catholic Church. But Cardinal Njue downplays any division in the church.

The election and its aftermath split the church along party and ethnic lines. Church leaders were accused of using the pulpit to beat drums of ethnic hatred which fuelled the post-election chaos.

With a flock split on party lines and gaps in national reconciliation, church leaders are now walking a tightrope in their attempts to sound neutral.

Perhaps this may explain why Cardinal Njue lately skirts political matters in favour of the less controversial issues of morality, family relations and religious doctrine.
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Source (DN)

SV (ED)