Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: Ben Knighton's edited volume is an interesting, important, and timely book which marks one of the few concerted efforts to interrogate the complex and ambiguous relationship between religion and politics in Kenya. Using the Anglican Bishop David Gitari – the ‘meddlesome priest’ – as a lens, the book explores the extent to which religious adherents have acted as a moral conscience and critic of the state in the past, and raises questions over their propensity to do so in the future. The book boasts an impressive and diverse list of contributors, allowing for an effortless fusion of academic analysis and personal insight. The result is a rich, detailed, and vibrant study of an oft-neglected issue. The authors reach quite different conclusions about the book's key problematic, and the chapters can be broadly organized into three overlapping – and, at times, wholly competing – perspectives. The first identifies religion as a ‘force to be reckoned with in Kenyan politics’ (p. 125), a vibrant critic of the state which, despite having experienced a decline in recent years, has the potential to become a check on political excess and an instrument of social transformation once again. Galia Sabar's analysis (Chapter 4) of the ways in which Gitari and other Anglican leaders used religious sermons as a means of challenging former President Daniel arap Moi's increasingly oppressive regime blends almost seamlessly into Julius Gathogo's reflections (Chapter 5) upon how this prophetic ministry could resurrect the churches' moral authority vis-à-vis the contemporary Kenyan state. Jacqueline Klopp's powerful and detailed Chapter 7 adds further nuance to this discussion, offering an explanation for the comparative silence of the church in recent years. Focusing upon the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) in particular, Klopp argues that the churches' critical voice was muted and weakened by their increasing politicization and partisanship. She nevertheless concludes that if it can return to its ‘proud legacy’, the alternative politics of the NCCK can challenge big man politics and serve as a beacon of hope for Kenya in the future. The second cluster of chapters is more cautious in its assessment, suggesting that while religious adherents have assumed the critic's role at times, this position has been weakened, constrained, and encumbered by their entanglement with the state and their entrenchment in the ethnicized structures of Kenyan society. John Lonsdale's characteristically compelling chapter (Chapter 2) not only provides a valuable historical backdrop to the volume as a whole, but also convincingly argues that there is a ‘theological bias in favour of the state’ (p. 74) within Kenyan Christianity, that self-interest underpinned aspects of the churches' opposition to Moi's regime, and that the deep-rooted intertwining of religion and politics meant that ‘it could only be as severely compromised critics … that the churches … played their part in the 1990s’ (p. 59). Paddy Benson similarly argues that even in the ‘golden age for Anglican influence’ (p. 111, Chapter 3) the church was selective in the issues it tackled. He notes specifically the lack of willingness to address ethnic tensions, suggesting that the church is ‘hampered … by its own structure’ since it is ‘cut from the same ethnic cloth as the rest of society’ (p. 109). The final argument moves even further away from the idea of religion as a moral and critical voice, and suggests rather that Christianity is embroiled in the neo-patrimonial structures of the state and has been co-opted by Kenya's high politics. Paul Gifford's excellent chapter (Chapter 8) – a highlight of the book – thus argues that while some churchmen challenged the system in the past, ‘this much celebrated contribution should not hide the fact that nearly all branches of Kenyan Christianity have been fairly easily manipulated, even co-opted, by the political elite’ (p. 202). The final two chapters seem oddly placed, and lie outside the book's key problematic. Knighton's chapter (Chapter 9) emphasizes the religious aspects of the Mungiki movement, which are often downplayed in the literature, and Chesworth (Chapter 6) offers an insightful overview of Christian–Muslim tensions over the inclusion of Kadhi courts in the draft constitution. However, while they are independently interesting and important, and valuable to the book in their departure from the otherwise overwhelmingly Christian – and arguably Anglican – focus, they add little to the broader themes and questions with which the other authors are concerned. Indeed, the book suffers from a lack of cohesion; Bishop Gitari's centrality is wavering and does not provide the unifying theme that is perhaps intended. At times his appearance seems forced, and when he does take centre stage the reader is left questioning how representative he is of broader church–state relations. The book's structure does little to organize the competing arguments, leaving readers to find their own way through the maelstrom of conflicting perspectives. However, despite these minor issues, this is a thoroughly enjoyable book and while it raises far more questions than it answers, the questions it does raise are of fundamental importance to the study of Kenyan politics.
Source: African Affairs
DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adt053
Author: S. Jenkins
Institution: Aberystwyth University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2072209380