“The moral barometer of our country”: Kenya’s National Assembly Speaker Lauds Catholic Bishops at Episcopal Consecration

Nairobi, 09 April, 2024 / 11:30 AM

The Speaker of the National Assembly in Kenya has recognized with appreciation the role that Catholic Bishops are playing in the East African nation.

In his congratulatory remarks during the Saturday, April 6 Episcopal Consecration of Bishop Simon Peter Kamomoe and Bishop Wallace Ng’ang’a Gachihi as Auxiliary Bishops for the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi, Hon. Moses Masika Wetang'ula said, “I would like to salute the new Bishops and all the Bishops present for continuing to be the moral barometer of our country, the moral rectitude of our society.”

Hon. Wetang’ula, who represented the President of Kenya, Dr. William Samoei Ruto at the Consecration event said that the Kenyan head of State “respects the Catholic Church and all other churches in the country for the work they are doing to collaborate with the government in the sectors of education and health and all other sectors that foster the wellbeing of the country.”

He went on to share Dr. Ruto’s message to the newly Consecrated Bishops, saying, “The president says that you should now collaborate with other Bishops to ensure that the Church continues to be the measuring rod for the good deeds in our country.”

“You should not be afraid to openly say that which is going wrong because your voice is considered to be from God,” Speaker Wetang’ula told Bishop Kamomoe and Bishop Ng’ang’a during the April 6 event that was held at St. Mary’s Msongari School grounds in Westlands, Nairobi.

He continued President Ruto’s message to the two newly Consecrated Bishops, “Kenyans from bottom to the top are ready to hear your voice and advice and ready to rectify whenever there is a mistake.”

Hon. Wetang’ula also expressed President Ruto’s call to the new Auxiliary Bishops for Nairobi Archdiocese to speak truth to power, fearlessly faulting the government when they observe errors.

On his part, Speaker Wetang’ula, a Catholic, pledged to facilitate the passage of bills and laws that reflect the Kenyan society and aspirations of the people of God there.

Alluding to his opposition to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer or Questioning (LGBTQ) agenda, the Kenyan Speaker recalled a recent interaction with “some Clergy”.

“I was recently visited by some Clergy from the Catholic Church who told me that we see you sitting in the speaker’s seat. Please, for the sake of our nation, do not allow any legislation that perverts or corrupts the morals of our society,” he recalled.

Speaker Wetangula said he gave the Clergy, who visited him “my word that I will be the watchdog too to ensure that the legislation we have must be consistent and be in line with the expectations of the society.”

In his role as Speaker, he pledged to facilitate the resistance to “any attempts to pervert those morals through legislations that may be engineered from different quarters of the world that don’t appreciate what we stand for.”