April 12, 2015
The story has been told of the perceived protocol breach that happened two years ago during the inauguration ceremony of President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto, when they knelt for prayer as military generals, who are junior to them in rank, remained standing.
What has not been narrated since the April 9, 2013 inauguration was how a bishop who had been given the role to conduct the Christian prayer organised without informing security for the two new executives to seek divine intervention while on their knees.
Military protocol dictates that the Commander-in-Chief cannot bow or kneel while his juniors (service commanders) remain standing. But such brief was not given to Christ is the Answer Ministries (CITAM) Rev David Oginde — the bishop who presided over the inauguration ceremony — when he was called by the inauguration committee early that morning to be informed he would conduct the Christian prayer.
The caller only told the Bishop a request had been for the two to kneel while being prayed upon, but he did not elaborate that the generals should also be asked to kneel. Awed by the great honour bestowed upon him, though in short notice, Bishop Oginde says in an interview he first thought of how the executive duo would kneel on the Kasarani stadium concrete and he felt uncomfortable.
He says, though it was 5.30am when he received the call, he told his wife Nancy to make arrangements to buy soft-cushion pillows when the supermarkets opened and to somehow try to deliver them to him at Kasarani to where he would have proceeded. The man of God says he was yet to figure out how to “sneak” to the dais the cushions on which the Big Two and their spouses would kneel.
“The gravity of the responsibility ahead dawned on me when the telephone call came at 5am on D-Day to inform me that the President-elect and his deputy had requested to have the prayer made as they knelt. My wife Nancy, upon hearing their request, asked, ‘Are you serious? Is that what they really want?’ ”.
From there on, it was a race against time to make sure the prayer session went without a hitch. “I don’t remember the exact time I arrived at the ceremony. My instructions were to be at the Milimani Law Courts by 8.30am and from there, I would be taken to Kasarani Sports Complex by bus alongside members of the Judiciary,” he says.
At the courts, he was met by the Judiciary Chief Registrar Gladys Shollei. On arrival at the Safaricom Stadium Kasarani, the venue of the ceremony, protocol was observed and Rev Oginde was assigned two protocol officers who directed him to his reserved seat.
As Rev Oginde keenly followed the smoothly run and fast-paced programme, he could tell his slot was quickly approaching as a protocol officer went to him and asked him to proceed to the front of the dais. As he slowly walked to the front, he heard the announcement from the Master of Ceremonies: “Could we have Bishop David Oginde of CITAM come forward?” He had asked his wife to shop for cushions ‘befitting kings’, on which Uhuru, Ruto and their spouses would kneel.
Unknown to him, Nancy had shopped, but she had been stopped by security from delivering them to the dais. Indeed, a security officers had confiscated the pillows and kept them near the entrance to the dais. “They guards were actually furious that my wife had tried to get to the stadium with the cushions without clearance from the relevant security officers.
They quickly confiscated them, saying allowing me to get into the stadium with them constituted a security breach,” says the bishop. The bishop was however not letting his plan get disrupted.
He quickly thought on his feet. “As soon as I took the microphone, in a flash of a second, an idea came to mind and with a solid voice I announced, ‘The President, the Deputy President and their spouses have requested to kneel as we say the prayer. I brought some cushions, can someone bring them to the front?” he says.
By the time he finished saying the words, the protocol officers moved with lightning speed to bring the ‘confiscated’ cushions to the front and arranging them neatly before Uhuru, Ruto and their spouses Margaret Kenyatta and Rachel Ruto respectively, as the packed stadium waited.
Bishop Oginde says the announcement must have hit the Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces Gen Julius Karangi like thunderbolt. “He was apparently taken by surprise by the announcement, I could see him wanting to say something but I looked right ahead,” says Oginde.
With local and international cameras rolling during the live event, Karangi and his men looked restless apparently not knowing whether to kneel or not, seeing that there was no possible way the President, their Commander-in-Chief could kneel in their presence as they remained standing.
It never happens anywhere in the world for the senior commander to bow or kneel as the juniors remain standing. Bishop Oginde says there was no protocol breach as the kneeling act was not before human authority but before God. They retained their supreme status even as they knelt, he says.
Today, Bishop Oginde says he has no doubt in his mind that the prayers made on that historic day have been answered. “Of course not only the prayers done that day, but also those done before and after inauguration. they have continued to make the two strong in moving the country forward,” he says.
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