From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2013
Anglican Archbishop retired Dr. David Gitari is dead but his spirit is still alive with us. When his fellow bishops from various sects were cowed to tell former president Daniel arap Moi in black and white when several things undemocratic in his Government were taking place, bishop Gitari did.
He fought for Section 2A of the constitution to be repealed. This section excluded from the political process anybody who was not a member of Kanu. He told Moi he was wrong to detain people who were against the voting of 1982 to make Kenya a de facto single party.
This lead to coup attempt in August 1,1982 by junior officers of the Kenya Air Force. Many People-including University students were arrested and imprisoned. University of Nairobi was closed for eight months.
Rev Gitari challenged politicians like Dalmas Otieno who argued that multi-party system in Kenya would allude to the period between 1966 and 1969 when the opposition Kenya People’s Union (KPU) party of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga found its bastion in Luo land.
Gitari is also remembered among other things, the notorious 1988 queuing voting system he vigorously condemned. Gitari had argued that queuing system would create enmity and divisions, especially among church leaders, head teachers, teachers, and civil servants queuing behind a candidate of his/ her choice in the open.
Gitari also blamed Moi and the ruling party government on the threat they made to punish very severely people who did not line behind Kanu candidates. The punishment included risks of being sacked from government jobs.
The Kenyan Catholic Bishops did not condemn the queuing system, instead in their pastoral letter they only spelled out the quality of people Kenyans should vote for- People who consider themselves accountable to God and to their own, who keep in touch with their constituencies and who are faithful to their election promises.
People who respect the rights of others with regard to property, who do not use their position to mass property, especially land and money, unmindfully many who have little or none.
People who promote partnership between government, religious bodies and parents in all areas of development, but especially in education where parents have shown a desire for increased religious influence in schools through genuine sponsorship, management, registration of schools, etc.
People who respect religious beliefs, the importance of family life, the rights of the unborn child and many other areas covered with medical ethics.
People with genuine integrity, moral justice and who are competent for the posts entrusted to them.
This was despite the decision by Kanu that the candidate who polled 70 percent of the voters present for the queuing would be nominated unopposed, irrespective of the voter turnout in that constituency.
Born David Mukuba Gitari on September 16, 1937, Gitari was the third African archbishop of Kenya and bishop of the diocese of Nairobi in the Anglican Church of Kenya.
He was ordained into the priesthood of the Anglican Church in 1972 by Bishop Obadiah Kariuki. On July 20, 1975, at the age of thirty-seven, Gitari was consecrated and enthroned as the first bishop of Mt. Kenya East diocese.
In that position, Gitari founded St. Andrews College of Theology and Development at Kabare. He served there as bishop until 1990 when Mt. Kenya East diocese was split into Embu and Kirinyaga dioceses. He then moved to Kirinyaga, thereby becoming the first bishop of Kirinyaga.
Apart from preaching against constitutional changes which introduced voting by queuing, Gitari also preached and campaigned against land grabbing by powerful politicians, challenging economic injustice on a national as well as a local level.
On the night of April 21, 1989, at the height of his struggle for justice, a large and heavily armed gang of thugs numbering about 100 raided his house. They dug out the security bars and shouted that they had come to kill him. He and his family escaped to the roof and called for help from neighbors. Neighbors came to his rescue just in time and the thugs fled.
MAY GOD REST HIS SOUL IN ETERNAL PEACE-AMEN
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
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Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ
UN Disarmament
Conference, 2002