Tribal Tensions Challenge Christian Unity During Kenyan Elections
Kenyan Christians gathered in tents in Eldoret, Kenya on May 19, 2022 to pray for a peaceful election season. Photo by Robert Carle
ELDORET, Kenya — Thousands of people gathered in tents in the center of Eldoret, Kenya, on the evening of May 19 to hold an all-night prayer meeting called a “caravan” designed to foster a peaceful election season.
“This is a movement of repentance and dedication of our land to the Lord,” said Margaret Kimani, treasurer of the Eldoret Gospel Ministries Association, which hosts the ecumenical prayer meeting. She said this kind of “caravan” takes place in every county in the country. “We have had lots of wars and bloodshed. Our message to politicians is, ‘Don’t be an influence to fight and shed blood.’”
Margaret and her husband, Matthew, are ethnic Kikuyus. They had to flee Eldoret, the largest city in the Rift Valley, when it dissolved into a spasm of Kalenjin violence against their Kikuyu neighbors following the 2007 election.
“Hatred found an opportunity to kill, burn houses and destroy property,” said Peter Simwa, chair of the Gospel Ministries Association.
Memories of the violence that followed the 2007 election haunt the religious leaders of this region. In December 2007, opinion polls showed that opposition candidate Raila Odinga, a member of the Luo tribe, had a comfortable lead over incumbent president Mwai Kibaki, who is Kikuyu. Nonetheless, the final vote tally showed that Kibaki had won the election by a narrow margin. International election observers reported widespread manipulation in vote counting and declared that the election was illegitimate.
Fifteen minutes after Kibaki declared victory, ethnic-based violence erupted in many parts of Kenya. At least 1,300 people were killed, and 600,000 people were driven from their homes. The Rift Valley was the epicenter of some of the worst violence. Kalenjin youth traveled around in trucks, evicting hundreds of thousands of so-called Kalenjin foreigners, most of whom had lived in the Rift Valley for generations. When Kikuyu sought protection in an Assemblies of God church in Eldoret, Kalenjin youth barricaded the door of the church from outside and set the church on fire, killing 30 women, children and elderly people. Most Kikuyus in the Rift Valley ended up fleeing their homes and settling elsewhere in the country. In other parts of Kenya, Kikuyu youth committed atrocities against Luo and Kalenjin residents. In the lake town of Nakuru, a Kikuyu criminal organization circumcised Luo men before beheading them. The bloodshed destroyed Kenya’s image as a peaceful, stable African country. Tourism and foreign investment came to a screeching halt.
Margaret Kimani, Peter Simwa and Gideon Mudenyo, officers of the Eldoret Gospel Ministries Association. Photo by Robert Carle
Simwa said that the church was crucial in bringing peace back to the Rift Valley in the wake of the election violence. “As the killing was going on, we stood our ground,” Simwa said. “We were doing peace brigades. We were telling people they should not fight. Healing did not begin with politicians. Healing began with grass-roots repentance and reconciliation.”
“This time,” Simwa said, “We are being proactive rather than reactive. We are praying before, not after, the elections.”
Gideon Mudenyo, general secretary of the association, said, “In the leadup to the 2007 elections, church leaders erred in dividing sharply along partisan political lines. This blunted the ability to be a force for peace.” This time around, denominational leaders are remaining politically neutral in their public statements. This empowers the church to be a force for civility and peace.
“We want all politicians to know that we pray for them,” Kimani said. “In case of disputes, we are in the middle. We can be mediators.”
In this year’s election, class is emerging as a factor along with ethnicity. Raila Odinga has the support of President Uhuru Kenyata, and William Ruto, a Kalenjin, is running a populist campaign that defines him as a representative of the downtrodden working poor. Ruto claims to represent the interests of “hustlers” — Kenya's vast hardworking underclass — and not the interests of the “dynasties” like the Kenyattas and Odingas. In the narrative that Ruto is developing, the dynasties have created a corrupt, manipulative “deep state” that serves the interests of oligarchs and must be dismantled.
Right now, polls show Ruto and Raila in a dead heat, and the Eldoret Gospel Ministers Association expects that the outcome of these elections will be ambiguous. Simwa said, “We already know that somebody will say there was cheating and rigging. But they should pursue challenges through peaceful means, not violent means.”
One resource that Kenya has in 2022 that it did not have in 2007 is an independent judiciary. Simwa described Kenya’s Chief Justice Martha Koome as a “courageous and godly woman who does not have a heart of corruption.” Koome has bipartisan respect in Kenya because during her tenure, she has been as likely to rule against the government as to rule in the government’s favor.
“This is one reason things are changing for the better in Kenya,” Margaret Kimanai added. “Women are assuming positions of power.”
In 2007, the courts had little credibility because they were perceived to be a tool of the government. “Not anymore,” Simwa said. “If there are election irregularities, the Supreme Court will issue a ruling on them, and Kenyans will respect the ruling.
“After this year’s election,” Simwa said, “Some of us will be happy; some of us will be disgruntled, but we don’t have to fight our brothers and sisters because of the election.”
The church is in a unique position to be an agent of healing and reconciliation because, in Kenya, churches are an unself-conscious mix of ethnicities. Church services are rarely held in tribal languages. Instead, churches conduct services in a mixture of Kiswahili and English, sometimes peppered with phrases from Kenya’s hip new urban language, Sheng. Churches are a melting pot, where ethnicities are blurred and where Christian identity transcends ethnic identities.
“Kenya is bigger than politicians,” Mudenyo said. “But God is bigger than Kenya.”
Robert Carle is a professor at The King’s College in Manhattan. Dr. Carle has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, The American Interest, Religion Unplugged, Newsday, Society, Human Rights Review, The Public Discourse, Academic Questions, and Reason. Carle is reporting from Eldoret, Kenya.
Running on Faith
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In Kenya, the Eldoret Gospel Ministries Association is hosting a caravan of all-night prayer meetings to promote peace ahead of the election. Similar events are happening in every county as religious leaders remember the 2007 election violence that left 1,300 dead and 600,000 displaced. The church played a key role in restoring peace to the Rift Valley, and this year's election could be similarly contentious due to class and ethnicity issues