Gospel Musician Reuben Kigame Speaks on His Political Activism: "Jesus Was Also a Social Activist"

- Reuben Kigame said some Christians are called to various ministries but many make the mistake of dichotomising faith and daily living - According to him, the preacher may also be a good carpenter like Jesus, a tent-maker like Paul or a medical doctor like Luke, who wrote the gospel

- Reuben Kigame said some Christians are called to various ministries but many make the mistake of dichotomising faith and daily living

- According to him, the preacher may also be a good carpenter like Jesus, a tent-maker like Paul or a medical doctor like Luke, who wrote the gospel

- He said one can be a good professional lawyer, architect, musician, politician, farmer, but also a good believer in Christ

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Celebrated gospel musician Reuben Kigame is not only known to Kenyans for his Christian music but for vocally weighing in on leadership matters of the nation.

At times, Kenya’s leadership is entangled in financial and political turmoil as debt levels continue to balloon and citizens get divided over the amendment of the Constitution and 2022 succession; the church at large and musicians have remained silent despite their influential roles.

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However, this has not been the case for Kigame, a trained teacher, journalist, Christian apologetic, author and musician who reiterates that Christians and musicians have a big role in shaping and checking on the nation's leadership.

Kigame talked to TUKO.co.ke on why he actively participates in political discourses despite many of his followers discouraging him that politics and Christianity do not mix like oil and water.

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Here is part one of the series:

1.You have been and remain to be vocal on leadership matters in this country at a time many musicians and Christian teachers remain silent. Why this?

I wear many hats, including being a trained teacher and a trained media practitioner in the area of broadcasting, the former at undergraduate and the latter at Masters level.

Many people mostly think of me as a musician and nothing else. The truth of the matter is that I have been a social commentator and activist since my student days at Kenyatta University. Because it was often seditious to hold contrary opinions to the then ruling party, KANU and President Moi’s regime, most of us operated underground.

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I had tonnes and tonnes of Hillary Ng’weno’s “Weekly Review” and Bedan Mbugua’s “Beyond” magazines, but in order to be safe, I usually hid them in folded clothes in my wardrobe.

I was part of the student movement that was pushing for multi-party democracy in Kenya and attended the first rally held by the likes of Charles Rubia, Kenneth Matiba and Martin Shikuku who are now deceased.

I remember when I voted for the first time and how proudly I voted for Kibaki even though he did not make it then. I was against the detention of Raila Odinga and strongly believed in what several of them stood for, including James Orengo, whom we referred to as “Uncle Jimmy” in our days. So I am not starting now. It is easy to ignore me because I choose my battles.

The first album which I recorded in 1987, in its first edition, had a song called “Give them Freedom” which dealt with the evils of Apartheid.

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Kenyans say they love my music, but they are very selective when it comes to listening and they hardly check my lyrics.

The song This Cannot be released in 1994 talked about global pain and chaos.

On the same album, Another Country is a song called Who will Help the Refugees and another one I released on my channel recently called When I Wake Up, which talks about hunger and starvation, economic challenges, genocides and homicides.

About three weeks ago, I released Why Kill Tonight, which talks about car-jacking and I could cite other of my titles such as The way it ought to be, and I have a dream, Eldoret, Minibus ride, which is about the Matatu madness and Cry the pain which is about the 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, to name but a few.

I even have a song I have not released titled Don’t Trust the Politicians. In other words, although I sing a lot of worship music, I am an activist at heart. Kenyans just do not know or, if they do, they ignore.

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2. Do you believe that Christians, especially preachers, need to get involved in politics?

Not all. Christian ministry is diverse. Some Christians are called to teaching, some to evangelism, some to acts of charity, etc.

The mistake many make is to dichotomize faith and daily living. You cannot. The preacher may also be a good carpenter like Jesus or a tent-maker like Paul.

He can be a medical doctor like Luke, who wrote the Gospel or a president like David, who wrote many psalms or a houseboy like Nehemiah. One can be a good professional lawyer, architect, musician, politician, farmer, but also a good believer in Christ.

It works best when daily life and faith are integrated. As for politics and leadership, God is a “king”, which means He exercises leadership over the world.

Jesus was a teacher and preacher of the Good News, but also a social activist who challenged the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of the day and bad governance by the Romans.

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John the Baptist castigated soldiers who behaved badly and called for the fair treatment of the poor. This is what most prophets of the Old Testament did as well.

Someone like prophet Amos even condemned the practise of using false weights at the market and reducing the poor to a pair of sandals. Therefore, all my activism is a spiritual as well as a social duty.

3. Would it not be serving two masters at the same time?

Not really, because doing two or more things for the same person is not serving two masters. We all do more than one thing in life, but they end up defining the same person or master.

I sing my songs to God. I defend the vulnerable and exploited as a service to God. I write my tweets and do my Facebook posts or YouTube videos as a duty and service to humanity, another godly act because, besides loving God, I am called to love my neighbour as myself.

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My Master is one, whatever I do. 1 Corinthians 10:31 tells me to do everything in my life to the glory of God, and that includes eating and drinking.

4. Do you think musicians and preachers should vocally address issues of their leadership and take stands on such matters?

Certainly, when they do not , they let down God and society. We are in the world, and so musicians and preachers must address all that affects us in the world.

I wonder what else they can address. As a matter of fact, even preparation for heaven is done here.

5. In your view, what is Kenya’s biggest ailment, and how can this be cured?

There are three main things that bedevil Kenya and which urgently need to be dealt with:

1.The dehumanization of citizens by a few.

The dignity of Kenyans has been reduced by our leaders to that of being beggars of primary needs such as food, healthcare and education.

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This is unacceptable. We are so blessed with regard to resources and we pay our taxes, but every day there are Kenyans who go to bed hungry, go to the bush to look for wild fruits to eat or, like the case was last year at the coast, a woman boils stones to serve her children! How is that possible? How can we live as if we don’t know that is how far citizens have reached? Is it possible, pray to tell me, that we can know that is the case and continue as if it is not true? This must never be allowed at all.

2. There is insatiable greed for borrowing money ostensibly to invest in infrastructure in Kenya, but we know that not only do we lose billions to a few people in the name of tendering and investment but, it would seem as if corruption is budgeted for every year.

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The sad thing is that Kenyans continue to pay taxes that can be used for gradual infrastructural investment but these taxes go to pay off loans that are utilized badly. This is partly why Kenyans recently took to social media to protest this perennial affinity to borrowing.

Strangely, the Jubilee government was established on the heels of the Kibaki administration, which discouraged borrowing. Indeed, there was more visible development in the Kibaki era than the case is now.

Devolution has been threatened by this behaviour to the point where counties are held at ransom by the national government. Monies that should develop counties are delayed or not paid altogether. It is a sorry state that kills devolution.

3. The 2010 constitution has been abused and mutilated by a few who have duped the country into believing that BBI can solve the problems of Kenyans when it is intended to benefit a few who are hungry for shared power.

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At a time when the country is battling a pandemic, it is strange that a few power-hungry people can prioritize a process that is neither transparent nor urgent.

Again, you cannot mutilate 13 out of 18 chapters of a Constitution that is hardly fully implemented. Most of the recommendations in the BBI document can be dealt with without a referendum.

To this end, parliament has let the country down.

6. What’s your view about the voice of the church on issues affecting the leadership of Kenya at the moment?

As a member of the Church, I am extremely disappointed by how our Church leaders are no longer speaking out against the vices bedevilling our nation.

They are too quiet and I have no idea why. Sadly, instead of condemning something like corruption in the country, many church leaders receive monies from politicians without wanting to know where it came from.

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Sometimes such monies are more than a politician earns in a month and you just wonder why. Again, sin has become too much; they say nothing.

We no longer hear sermons on repentance and turning like in the days of Reinhardt Bonke and Joe Kayo. Then there is just so much depression and other manifestations of mental health, with people killing themselves or their families, but the bishops and pastors stay mum.

I would be excited to hear about the counselling services available from the Church as well as the mobilization of resources to feed the hungry. I keep singing and I keep preaching. I keep speaking for the exploited.

I wish the pastors and bishops would take up their prophetic mandate to the nation. I long for the days of Alexander Muge, henry Okullu, Manases Kuria and Ndingi Mwana-a-Nzeki. I long to see more church voices like those of Timothy Njoya and Bedan Mbugua join me in my activism.

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Instead, all I receive is the condemnation, with some dismissing me as a self-seeking, hungry person. I am very saddened that hardly have I heard church leaders come out for instance to add their voice to the exploitation of musicians.

Never mind that they use our music in the churches!

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7. Is it the leadership of Kenya that has given the church a wide berth, or it is the church that has abdicated its role in counselling and oversight leadership?

The two have become bedfellows. When that happens, there is a demilitarized zone and lack of engagement on social issues. It is sad.

8. Do you think the current Jubilee leadership has prioritised the urgent needs of Kenyans? If not, What’s the government’s biggest shortcoming?

If His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta had stuck to his Big Four agenda, many of us would have forgiven him for a few previous bad priorities because the Big Four was an excellent focus.

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Guys, I have no idea when this BBI madness came from! I don’t know what happened to the Big Four agenda? Then there is the visible divide between the president and his deputy.

A house that is divided cannot stand. The two are not perfect, but their division has also divided the country. This must be dealt with for real unity to come.

If the top is divided into “Kieleweke” and “Tangatanga”, BBI and the Hustler Nation do not expect unity.

9. In your opinion, do you think the fight against corruption in Kenya is making sense?

There is no demonstrated commitment to fighting corruption in Kenya. If, for instance, those in the Chickengate scandal in the UK have been apprehended and jailed, why are we still investigating the case in Kenya?

The DCI does an excellent job of pulling out cases of corruption, but imagine, the culprits go on as if nothing happened. We steal, are fined part of the loot and then life goes on.

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That is why we must remove the current government together with all their alliances and reboot our nation. To do less is to continue where we are and drop farther down.

10. Would you advocate for the inclusion of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and targets for political leaders in Kenya? Why?

I would call for a ScoreCard for every individual employee of government as well as corporate measurements for departments and institutions.

Without this, everybody will live as a law to themselves and keep stealing from the government and the people of Kenya.

Again, there needs to be accountability for all government employees including declaration and actual audit of wealth so that anomalies of financial miracles are arrested from detection.

It is not wrong to be hardworking and grow rich, but the wealth that cannot be accounted for has no other name. Lastly, the only way to deal with bad performance in government is to employ on the basis of experience and qualification regardless of where someone comes from.

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Again, not everybody who is qualified must end up in the national government. Some people need to be redeployed to fix and develop the counties.

To this end, at the level of the national government, I would want a smaller government. So I would combine several related departments and hand over several services to the county governments.

11.Your recent statement on the BBI, "We prayed to God to scatter the BBI process. If he has scattered it, we have been vindicated spiritually", went viral. Do you think the BBI will add value to Kenya?

Not at all. On the contrary, it will take away value. It is intended for a few. The process is flawed and it is costly for nothing.

12. Would you blame Kenyan voters for poor leadership? Why?

Oh yes. First, because we know those we elect, and if we don’t, we should be responsible for electing people we don’t know.

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Again, although there is a provision for recall upon non-performance, we do not utilize that. I guess because we are so needy, hungry and oppressed, even shouting against wrong is left to solitary voices.

Something like the push against IMF to loan Kenya money as happened recently in social media is the spirit we need in order to change something in this country.

For instance, now the Executive knows Kenyans do not want loans. We must keep at it with all the other issues such as corruption.

I am still wondering and I have tweeted asking why Kiama was remanded, given that Articles 33 and 34 of the Constitution were not violated by him.

13.What is your opinion on Kenya's public debt status?

It is immoral. It is unacceptable. I do not know how Yatani, the MPs and Senators and all Kenyans of goodwill can go to bed knowing our condition and just imagine that life is normal.

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There is a limit to immorality. Again, because it is clothed in secrecy, Kenyans really have no idea what is owed in debts and the implication of keeping on borrowing.

Those who question at all are silenced by being threatened with expulsion from the parties they belong to or other worse intimidations.

Nobody should fear if they are doing what is right. I think Kenyans are not angry enough about our national debt.

For me, I think we must stop borrowing immediately, reschedule what we have incurred and insist on living within our means.

In the second part of the interview, Kigame weighs in on the failures of the current leadership, his attempt in politics and future political ambitions and the place of youths, children, women and people living with disability in leadership.

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