Mr President you risk bringing idolatry in church, State House

Can the Kenya Kwanza government build a House for God? It seems most unlikely. Not in State House, nor anywhere else.

Christians read of King David telling his royal notables and commanders, in Chronicles 1, Chapter 28, why he would not build the House of God. His hands were tainted with human blood. Are the hands of Kenya Kwanza bloodied? 

“You shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed so much blood on the earth in my sight,” the chronicler says of David, in verse 3. He affirms the record in 2 Samuel, Chapter 7, verses 1 to 11, the original narrative on blood and God’s shrine, between King David and the Prophet Nathan.

David is saddened that he lives in a house of cedar, while God’s Ark of the Tabernacles resides in a tent. Nathan agrees that the king should build the temple. But this great man, who is described elsewhere (1 Samuel 13:14) as a man after God’s heart, is stopped in his tracks.

Nathan has a vision. God tells him that David cannot build God’s temple, because he has killed people. The hands of Kenya Kwanza are similarly tainted with human blood.

Last week alone, at least 16 people died in circumstances directly attributable to this government. According to Amnesty Kenya, hundreds more sustained wounds, due to Kenya Police violence. In 2024, some 104 were killed, according to the Missing Voices Report.

And now Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, says, “We have instructed the police to shoot to kill.” He says these are not just his own instructions, “They are orders from above.” He does not explain what he means. Is “Above” the Cabinet, or the President? Have they issued a confidential written memo to the police, or what?  Whatever the case, “Above” is tainted.

Human blood drips from the hands of “Above.” Accordingly, and in line with Christian writ, “Above” cannot build the House of God. Yes, it is possible that “Above” is a man after God’s heart, like King David. We don’t know. Regardless, the CS says that “Above” is the owner of “shoot to kill” orders. These orders have killed Kenyan youth, in cold blood. Scripturally, therefore, “Above” cannot build God’s House. 

Christian youth

“Above” could, however, rubbish everyone, put up a structure, and call it “God’s House.” This brick and mortar may be located at State House, or elsewhere. Parsons in cassocks may purport to sanctify it. They, too, may call it God’s Holy House. But it will not become one.

As Christian youth, we were taught that the Church was a sanctuary of peace. As the fountain of love, spiritual growth and reconciliation, it couldn’t be built in pompous chest thumping.

We learned in Sunday School in Emanyulia that people find love and the peace of God in this sanctuary. It is, accordingly, contraindicated with shedding of blood, and high level hubris. 

Away from hubris, blood; and the pomposity that informs official conversations, we run into constitutional problems when we build a structure in State House and call it a church. It doesn’t matter that a forgotten colonial relic stands there. Article 8 of the Constitution (2010) states categorically, “There shall be no state religion.”

For avoidance of doubt, I am a Christian gentleman. An active member of the Anglican Church of Kenya, at St Mark’s Church, Westlands, Nairobi, and St Paul’s ACK Emanyulia. I belong to the Kenya Anglican Men’s Association. And yet, have I not read where it is written, “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s?” 

The Roman emperor Constantine began the tradition of building churches about 325 AD. Before that, early Christians fellowshipped in homes. Constantine made himself a sort of bishop. David Gathii writes in the volume titled ‘Progressive Infiltration of Idolatry into the Universal Church and Nations’, “Constantine’s buildings were spacious and magnificent edifices that were said to be worthy of an emperor.” 

This emperor who legalised Christianity in Rome paganised and exploited Christianity, for his own political benefit. Together with his mother Helena, they hijacked the early Apostolic church. They replaced it with disguised forms of paganism and idolatry.

Is Kenya going there? It is safe and right for both the Church and the State to find their lanes and stay there. If President Ruto wishes to build a church house, he can do so away from State House. Those who wish to join him there can do so. He should leave State House alone. For, he risks running the church and State into idolatry. 

-Dr Muluka is a strategic communications adviser.