President William Ruto with Catholic Bishops led by Archbishop Maurice Muhatia, Chairman of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Kenya at State House, Nairobi on June 28, 2024.
President William Ruto is considering banning fundraisers, and that follows a chorus of questions from the public and a request from churches.
When he met leaders drawn from various protestant churches on Friday, one of the requests presented to him was to do away with harambees.
One of the clerics present in that meeting was retired Presbyterian cleric Timothy Njoya. In an interview with NTV, Rev Njoya said the issue of harambees was one of the topics the clerics touched on.
“That one we said very clearly,” Rev Njoya told NTV’s Dann Mwangi as part of the “Collar on Trial” series of interviews.
And how did the President respond?
“He didn't respond to some things. He had no time. We asked him too many things,” answered Rev Njoya. “But he seems to agree.”
During a media roundtable on Sunday, Dr Ruto said it is time Kenya rethought fundraisers.
Corruption
“We must stop harambees because it is occasioning and it is breeding, if I may say, corruption,” said the President.
Among the complaints raised against Dr Ruto’s administration is how his top allies were contributing massive amounts to fundraisers, which invited questions regarding the source of income.
The President said harambees began as a noble idea, but their usefulness now hangs in the balance.
According to Rev Njoya, the political class contributing in harambees is a conduit for corruption.
“These people who are carrying gunny bags to church, these MPs and other people, to give to the church. Who is more corrupt: the giver or the given?” he posed.
“I have always said that since I got saved in1956: the State is the agent and servant of the people. It should not buy the people. It should do work for which it is mandated by the people; not steal from the people to take back to them,” added the cleric.
Rev Njoya added that in his days as a preacher, he never organised fundraisers seeking to get contributions from personalities.
“Ask all these people who used to come to my church in Kinoo. Have they ever given me a shilling or given my church? We didn't do harambee or any fundraising when they came,” said Rev Njoya.
Asked whether the church leaders got any handout from the State House after visiting, Rev Njoya was equivocal that nothing was offered.
“If anybody was in the pocket, Ruto was in our pocket. We gave him our written statement and then we gave it to the Press,” he said. “It is him who was left with our property; not us his.”
He went on: “All those who can be given money are the ones who are saying so because they don't know anything else to be done to the State House other than be given money. They are corrupt, those who are alleging that to me are the most corrupt people. They are mentally corrupted. Their mindset is corrupted. I would say that: how can you imagine that Reverend Njoya can be given money by Ruto? Would you imagine?”
Rev Njoya was an outspoken critic of the seat of power, and he came face-to-face with the brutality of the Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi administrations.
During Jomo’s time, Rev Njoya once questioned the concept of harambees, saying they were an ideology of the Kikuyu middle class. He faced the wrath of Jomo’s government due to those remarks, getting an attack that led to the chopping of three of his fingers.
During Moi’s time, he was assaulted numerous times for taking part in anti-government protests, among them the Saba Saba.
