We ought to be cautious not to mock God in a rush attribution of the recent election results to God.
Yet in his acceptance speech, Jubilee’s Uhuru Kenyatta dedicated their win to God.
There were jubilations in a service last Sunday when Kenyatta’s running mate, William Ruto, said that God - in a special way - had given the Jubilee coalition victory in the March 4 polls.
“Ruto wept" soon became a trending topic within the Kenyan online community. I struggled with this development, when some of my friends went into an online frenzy, declaring, “the voice of the people is the voice of God!"
In short, they were implying that in the declaration of Kenyatta as the winner, God had spoken and we must say Amen and move on!
But was this an act of God as claimed? Was this victory a miracle from God so that we dedicate it to Him?
I am unwilling to accept this notion without probing it, lest I find myself among them that mock God.
St Paul cautions: "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap."(Galatians 6:7 ESV). The term to mock, in its scriptural sense, means to act hypocritically; to make false pretences or professions.
But the irony is that God is not dishonored really, but only so far as man is concerned.
Vox populi, vox dei – the notion that the voice of the people is the voice of God, comes to us from an old Latin proverb; the whole concept of democracy is based on it, and has a lot of truth in it.
There are numerous instances in history when people, once awakened, have brought down corrupt governments and monarchs but while it is so, there are also instances that peoples' voice can be wrong.
In the 1932 Reichstag election, Nazis got 37.4 per cent of votes, thus becoming the largest party in Germany. Adolf Hitler came to power through the peoples' vote, though the insidious agenda of his party should have been evident from the beginning.
There is wisdom in Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, Vox populi, vox Dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit, is another Latin proverb which loosely translated means "those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness."
No one eloquently expresses this better than Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the US, who once said: "The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and, however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true to fact. The people are turbulent and changing, they seldom judge or determine right. "
In the 2013 elections, historical animosity, tribal considerations and aspirations embodied in particular candidates and revenge were key determinants as to how people voted. Thus when we invoke God's name in what we have done ourselves following our own whims and incongruence to His will, we will – in my view - be adjudged to mock God.
This is not to say people's voices lack the power to become God's voice when they follow His principles.
No one can blame the elders of Biblical Israel for rejecting Samuel’s sons as their leaders; they simply did not measure up.
It was their reason for wanting a king that was suspect, - in and of itself, the desire to have a king was not bad; God had this coming as 400 years before this, He had given instructions to Israel about their future king (Deuteronomy 17:14-20). This drive to be like all the nations was a real let down, as it implied their refusal to be under God's exceptional direction.
Commenting on Israel’s request, a scholar has observed: “This is the revelation of the supreme wrong. They had been chosen to be unlike the nations, a people directly governed by God.”
The sense in the Scriptures is that Israelites got their minds made up; not even God would change this! God wanted Israel to know there would be problems with having a king. It is unlike God to impose his choice on us, as He may give us what we want, and then deal with us regarding the reasons as he did with the Israelites. We will be inaccurate to view the Lord's granting their request to be approval.
Each of the presidential candidates presented us with baggage that we would have shouldered had they ascended to power. In our situation, if the challenges against Kenyatta and Ruto – “personal” or otherwise – collapse, they will be our God-given leaders. But we’ll have to live with the consequences of choosing them to be our leaders.
In the words of my friend Njonjo Mue, "Assuming they won, we as a nation have all volunteered to become their human shield against justice!"
Thus, as we celebrate or lament the election results, let us remember, in the words of another sage, that; “There is no compulsion to accept the rule of God, yet ultimately there is no escaping it, for he appoints the king.”
The writer serves in the Anglican Church of Kenya’s All Saints Cathedral Diocese. The views expressed here are his own.
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