Kenya's church donations and colonialism

IN KENYA, Christianity is the dominating religion comprising approximately 85% of the population. Christianity first arrived in Kenya through the coastal regions in the 15th century, bringing Western education, literacy, and missionary control over society, influenced by British coloni-alism.

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Missionaries even and immense con-trol over education, health care, and power dynamics, thus embedding the religion deeply into the foundational structures of Kenya.

Churches have been targeted so communities would exert efforts into converting people members into the education that missionaries became an avenue for elitism and for churches to gain political visibility, influence and legitimacy.

The church and religion as a whole are not just spiritual centres, commu-nity hubs, places of socialisation and hubs for connection. They can also be wielded as tools for manipulation, where churches exert significant influence over their congregations' eco-nomic, political, and voting decisions.

Today, Kenyan politicians, includ-ing President William Ruto, who recently donated 20 million Shillings (about R3 million), are employing tac-tics reminiscent of colonial-era strat-egies to exert influence and control the masses.

Is it that congregations believe that the value of donations is relative to the attention their officials will give to the regions, or in so doing the commu-nities gain greater access to services, employment or education simply due to religious affiliations?

The public is concerned that dona-tions to churches are used for money laundering or corruption, with critics calling it 'stolen tax money'.