Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Gladys Boss Shollei, has expressed concern over the way Catholic Bishops addressed President William Ruto concerning the current state of the nation.
Boss Shollei contends that the clergy should have sought a private audience with the President to voice their concerns, rather than holding a press conference.
“If they really want to support him, they could have called the president, seek an audience with him, tell him what is going wrong, advise him on what they think should be corrected and also pledge to pray for him,” she said
The Uasin Gishu Woman Representative described the statements made by the Catholic Bishops this week as alarming and uncalled for.
“Kama Bishops wamekuwa alarmists, I think we are finished. We have nowhere to run. Those are the people who should have been calming us down, praying for us, giving us hope, and preaching hope. You cannot preach doom and still call yourself a Bishop,” she declared.
According to Boss Shollei, like other members of the clergy, the Catholic Bishops have the opportunity to meet with the President at any time, which raises questions about their decision to address him through the media—an act she deems in poor taste.
“I know that Bishops of every type of church in Kenya, and every denomination, can get an audience with the head of state today, because our head of state has leaned on the church all his life.”
By publicly criticizing the President in this manner, the Deputy Speaker argues that the bishops showed a lack of intent to offer solutions to the urgent issues they highlighted.
“When you castigate the President and the government in public, are you really trying to resolve the problem, or are you just trying to play to the gallery and the political realm? That is exactly what they (Bishops) were doing,” she asserts.
