The church will no longer allow politicians to use the pulpit as a platform for political popularity.
The Head of the Anglican Church, Rev Dr Jackson Ole Sapit took issue with a number of politicians who take advantage of fundraisers in the church to buy political loyalty from the mass.
With cases of corruption becoming almost a norm in the country, and almost touching every sector of the economy, focus now seems to have been turned on the church which according to pundits is a passive participant in the corruption cycle, by allowing individuals to use proceeds of the vice as donations.
Sapit says the church now begin to question the source of the said donations.
Get breaking news on your Mobile as-it-happens. SMS ‘NEWS’ to 22163
Speaking at a press briefing organized by the multi-sectoral initiative against corruption, Sapit, however, said not all the donations are proceeds of corruption and should not be demonized.
He said politicians are derailing the message of the church and asked all bishops of all dioceses to preach the teachings of hard work as the only means of wealth accumulation.
“Dirty money”
The church has come under fire for entertaining politicians during services and allegedly receiving donations from graft suspects.
However, the emotive matter has left the church divided with a section of the clergy from different churches saying there is no clear mechanism to distinguish between clean and dirty money.
Others strongly feel that church facilities should be declared out of bounds for political activities.
Two years ago, Pope Francis declared that the Catholic Church does not want people to donate “dirty money”.
“Some donors come to the Church offering profits from the blood of people who have been exploited, mistreated, enslaved with badly paid work,” Francis said during his regular weekly audience with pilgrims at the Vatican.
But the ACK head is very clear on the issue and has admitted that the church might have unwittingly promoted corruption through its actions but said they were pondering banning fundraisers in its sanctuaries.
“The church and the clergy must preach and inculcate the value of hard work as the only means to wealth accumulation,” says Sapit “Together with the bishops in charge of Dioceses, we shall launch a campaign to ensure that proceeds of corruption are repossessed.
Sapit challenged the church to quietly mobilise resources for development agenda and cautioned against being used by politicians to sanitise illegally acquired resources.
“Let us not hype this thing of harambees and guests of honour because that is where, as the church, we go wrong.……The pulpit should only be for the worship leaders,” he said.
He decried the runaway corruption and government ballooning debt saying they are denting the country’s developmental agenda.
He further urged the government to cut down on borrowing saying the current debt was weighing down the country and contributing to high levels of unemployment.
He said development and social programmes have suffered as government revenue is taken away from essential services and used instead to service debt.