President Ruto with religious leaders in Vihiga county.He donated to a large sum of money to a church in Vihiga last week.
By Peter Mwibanda….Photo/IP
NAIROBI — IP
Kenya really needs to decide what it wants to build first — faith or first aid.
From the look of things, we might soon have a church on every corner… and a hospital only when you turn to heaven.
Every Sunday, our politicians gather in air-conditioned sanctuaries, waving fat envelopes and quoting Bible verses about generosity — never mind that the same week, new mothers are detained for unpaid hospital bills.
Maybe the hospitals should start holding Sunday services; perhaps then someone would donate.
How does a government delegation casually “bless” a church with fifty million shillings while young mothers are sleeping on cold hospital floors?
Is faith now a budget line and empathy an optional expense?
We proudly call ourselves a God-fearing nation. Yet our classrooms leak, our hospitals lack medicine and our children study under trees.
Maybe the rain is part of the curriculum now — “Introduction to Suffering 101.”
Let’s be clear: religion isn’t the problem. Misplaced devotion is. We have mastered public prayer but failed private compassion.
Our leaders preach like saints on Sunday and legislate like atheists on Monday.
Take Mike Sonko — yes, the same one with the shiny suits — whose Sonko Rescue Mission recently paid bills for over a hundred detained mothers.
Noble? Absolutely. Necessary? Sadly, yes — because government hospitals seem to believe the sick should tithe before discharge.
Some mothers even lost their babies due to lack of oxygen or proper sanitation.
That’s not poverty. That’s policy rot served with holy water.
Imagine if all the money we splash at crusades, harambees, and “thanksgiving services” went to equip hospitals and schools.
Maybe then we’d have fewer burials to pray over and more healthy citizens to pay taxes.
Kenya doesn’t need another altar; it needs an ambulance. Not another cathedral, but clean maternity wards. God doesn’t live in the gold on our pulpits — He’s probably in the casualty ward, waiting for a doctor who never comes.
So yes, pray while you’re at it, maybe build a hospital too. After all, faith without actions (medicine)is dead.
