BiAS 7 – The Bible and Politics in Africa
We want as a case study to closely examine the written work of
Archbishop David Gitari, on how he used the Bible in his sermons to
rebuke the authorities in Kenya on various socio-economic and political
issues and thus contributed immensely to the re-introduction of multi-
party democracy in Kenya. We will mainly look at some of his ‘25 pro-
phetic sermons preached between 1975 and 1994’ and later published in
a book, In Season and out of Season, sermons to a Nation, published by
Regnum publishers 1996.^12 We want to establish the fact that the Bible
remains an influential material in shaping governance and contributes
to the building and consolidating democracy. We will also briefly exam-
ine the works of Professor Jesse Mugambi and especially his three chap-
ters on ‘Foundations for an African Approach to Biblical Hermeneutics;
Africa and the Old Testament and Text and Context in Applied Christian
Theology’ in his book Christian Theology and Social Reconstruction^13.
Mugambi reiterates on how the Bible should be rightly used and applied.
In consolidating democracy it is important to see how the Bible has been
used to promote human rights and also addressing corruption in African
regimes. Here we would want to illustrate by showing how in civic edu-
cation bible studies are produced to be discussed by the masses. The
author did design a programme known as ‘Education for Participatory
Democracy’ which was carried out through the country. We trained train-
ers who did pass the training to thousands of people in the country. The
contents of the programme included topics like human rights and the
role of the civil society in a democracy, responsible citizenship and lead-
ership, voter education and based on the bible.^14
Kenya being 80% Christian would find the bible relevant. The Church
leaders and especially the Roman Catholic Church also prepared pastoral
letters based on the biblical teachings and are read in all church congre-
gations. This would then prompt us to examine the role of the church in
democratization process as, “The Church, being the custodian of God’s
(^12) I served as parish priest and later as his personal assistant for five years 1978 to 1983
and his director of communications in 1986 to 1988 in the then diocese of Mt. Kenya
East.
(^13) J.N.K. Mugambi, Christian Theology and Social Reconstruction, Nairobi, Acton Publ.,
2003.
(^14) See further description of the programme in, Gideon Gichuhi Githiga, The Church as
the bulwark against authoritarianism: Development of church and state relations in Kenya
with particular reference to the years after political independence 1963 – 1992. Regnum
Books International, Oxford, 2001 109 – 119.