Angry Kenyans are demanding that the AIPCA Church returns the Sh 7 million donation given by President Ruto on Sunday describing the gift as bribery and a way of silencing the Church of Christ.
The Catholic Church caused a huge political storm after the Nairobi Archdiocese Bishop Phillip Anyolo ordered the Soweto Catholic Church in Embakasi to return the Sh 600,000 donated by President Ruto on Sunday and another Sh 200,000 donated by Nairobi governor Johnstone Sakaja.
The Church further said they had declined the other donations that President Ruto had promised and which he had asked the Father in charge to collect on Monday at State House, Nairobi.
Kenyans had put pressure on the Church to reject the donations saying they were akin to bribing the Church so that it can remain mum on the misrule and ills afflicting the country.
The donations that came only days after 29 Catholic Bishops wrote a stinging rebuke of President Ruto and his government accusing the Head of State of presiding over a corruption, misrule, impunity and a culture of lies was seen as way of the President trying to win back the Church.
It is noted that the Church played a key role in the election of President Ruto after he presented himself as committed Christian and crisscrossed the country making hefty donations to Church.
At the time the Churches described him as the chosen one by God and dismissed other candidates are non-believers especially his closest challenger the Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga. Raila has since joined Ruto in government after handshake that saw key opposition figures join government.
Now all ears and eyes are now on Archbishop Fredrick Wang’ombe of the AIPCA church with Kenyans asking him to return the Sh 7 million “political donation clothed in the name of offering.”
Kenyans warned Archibishop Wang’ombe that failure to return the money will only allow the world to continue ridiculing God and the church.
“If the so called “offering” had quietly been sent to your church pay bill or dropped in the offertory basket, we would never have known. Instead, it was announced at the altar for the whole world to hear and with a lot of explanations. That is what makes it a donation not an offering. We don’t play games with God,” said an online commentator, Wahome Thuku.
