The National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), an umbrella
of protestant churches and other Christian organizations in Kenya, last week
held a 3 day long conference to celebrate 100 years of its existence since its
establishment in 1913.This comes at a time when the church struggles to come to
terms with all manner of accusations being leveled against it from faking
miracles to using the word of God to extort the flock among many other
accusations. While some of the accusations might be true, it’s also important
to acknowledge some of the positive attributes of the church, it’s important to
consider the role that the church has played in shaping the wellbeing of this
country since the period before independence to date. Kenya’s history cannot be
told without mentioning the church. In the 80s and 90s the church played a huge
role in the clamor for multi-party democracy from single party democracy widening
the democratic space where today the business of politics is no longer a
monopolistic affair but a situation where Kenyans have a wide pool of choices
to select from. The church was in the forefront in the push for constitutional
reforms through the famous Ufungamano initiative in the early 2000 resulting in
the formation of a people’s commission mandated to collect views of Kenyans on
the desired constitution. The church has also been heavily involved in shaping
the education system of this country through establishment of schools including
the famous Alliance High School and institutions of vocational training to
respond to demand for skills among Kenya’s young population. Mission hospitals
and other health care facilities in the country are a product of the church.
In this backdrop, even as the nation gears up to celebrate
her 50 years of independence from the colonial masters, it will also be fair
for Kenyans to accord the church the respect it deserves considering the
immense contribution the institution has made to this nation albeit the few
flaws here and there.
