The event, held at the Washington Convention Center, was organized by Rev. Jim Wallis, US President Barack Obama's high priest for successful outreach to evangelicals in last year's general elections.

Wallis represents the left in American Christianity and public affairs, best exemplified in his seminal work, God's Politics: Why the Right gets it wrong and why the Left doesn't get it. Flying in from Hong Kong, the friend saw no reason in such a "local" as myself staying away, and so tagged me along. With him was a cousin of his, who joined us from New York, - he worked closely with major players on the Kenyan political and religious scene to advance electoral and legal reforms in the late 1990s.

Three things stood out for me, which Kenyans of faith and goodwill might find interesting, whether or not they are Christians. On our way to one of the evening sessions, my two friends argued that the Christian left - as exemplified in Wallis - advances a consistent ethic of life that caters for the entire range of human experience, thus not limiting itself to the traditional abortion divide. Life, they seemed to suggest, should be considered beyond the geography of the mother's womb, its dignity, being and existence labored for and defended with as much vigor as it is before birth.

Their second argument was that while Wallis had been successful in mid-wifing a faith-based agenda for the Obama campaign, he now runs the risk of getting too intimate with the new administration, in ways no different from the Christian right under the previous administration and similar experiences in other parts of the world. Obama had been expected to deliver the keynote address in person, but instead sent a video recording in which he expressed support for what Wallis and company are doing to combat poverty. Their third argument, this time specifically by the gentleman from New York, was to specifically ask where the faith community in Kenya is at right now with regard to pressing issues of the day.The gentleman recalled having interacted with one Reverend Mutava Musyimi, a clergyman he said had been eloquent, clear-minded and forthright on issues that mattered at the time. He asked if Kenya still has, like the Mutava of the 1990s, men and women of faith who are still concerned about the plight of the weak, poor, vulnerable and marginalized.


I was none the wiser in responding then. I remain none the wiser even now. 

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