Kenya’s Catholic Church has rejected a donation of about $40,000 made by President William Ruto.
President Ruto offered the money towards the building of a priest’s house and as a gift to the choir during Mass on Sunday at the Soweto Catholic Church in Nairobi.
The BBC reports that ‘The president had given around 2.6m Kenyan shillings ($20,000, £16,000) in cash, pledged the rest of the money later and also promised to give the parish a bus.
‘The Catholic Archbishop of Nairobi, Philip Anyolo, said the cash would be returned over ‘ethical concerns and the need to safeguard the Church from being used for political purposes’.
The church also declined other pledges made by President Ruto and said ‘a donation of 200,000 Kenyan shillings made by the Governor of Nairobi, Johnson Sakaja – who attended the same service, was also being handed back.’
Archbishop Anyolo explained that ‘The Catholic Church strongly discourages the use of church events such as fundraisers and gatherings as platforms for political self-promotion’.
According to him such donations were in breach of the church directives as well as the Kenyan law.
Three years ago, established churches took a bold stand to ban politicians from using the pulpit during services in return for donations. SOURCE: Kasatintin.com
