The head of the Catholic Church in Kenya, Cardinal John Njue has appeared to deny reports that Pope Francis directed the church to return a car gifted to Kisumu Diocese Archbishop Philip Anyolo by Deputy President William Ruto.
This comes after Opposition leader Raila Odinga claimed that the Pontiff had ordered the Sh4 million luxury car be returned to the giver over suspicions that it was acquired through proceeds of corruption.
“Recently, during the installation of Archbishop of Catholic Diocese of Kisumu, someone (Ruto) took a vehicle to the bishop as a gift. When the Pope was informed that the Archbishop had received a car gift, he [Pope Francis] ordered that the vehicle is returned. And, true to his instruction, the car was returned because it was acquired from proceeds of corruption,” Odinga said on Saturday.
Speaking to the Daily Nation, Cardinal Njue says he’s not aware of such a communication from Pope Francis.
“I am not aware of how the comments came about. I don’t know about claims that the Holy Pope directed the Church to return the gift,” says Njue.
The claims by Odinga angered DP Ruto who took to Twitter to say: “The master of deceit as always is spewing desperate lies. The car gift was bought by Christian leaders including UK and myself at the request of the chair of Catholic MPs. Understandably Empowering the church offends magicians and the evil spirits they worship. Shetani ashindwe!”
Archbishop Anyolo has since confirmed that he donated the luxury vehicle to an organization that needed it more than he did.
The clergyman explained that he already had a brand new car by the time Ruto gifted him the Mitsubishi Pajero.
“The institution where I donated the Pajero is free to sell the vehicle and use proceeds from the sale to better the society,” he states.
The Church should never have…
The Church should never have accepted the gift, period. There should be a policy on this because it opens up a can of worms for those gifted. A bit like public services. You are there to serve the public irrespective of background and void of bias. The moment one accepts any kind of token, one puts themselves in a vulnerable position to return favours and whatever is done in good faith would from then on be seen as bias. The church was wrong to accept the gift and Ruto should have known better, he could have donated funds anonymously, but he wanted to show off to the world how generous he can be. Backlash to both! Why does a church need a luxurious car when most of it’s congregation goes in on Sunday with their stomach rumbling with hunger? Immoral behaviour from these rich geeks, the cheek of it all! Use the money wisely and eradicate poverty so we don’t have the West swarming from their country and holding our babies for show to appeal for funds so our children can have decent drinking water, shelter, etc…. We ushindwe Ruto, I echo to you!
Ruto says that the car was…
Ruto says that the car was bought by contributions from friends of the catholic church including Uhuru kenyatta after a request by the catholic followers.Ruto gives his money to those in need and the poor mwananchi somehow benefits from it. Raila is so mean with his Ill gotten wealth which he hides in his house and banks where a person can not get.
The discredited head of the…
The discredited head of the catholic church in Kenya comes to the defence of the thief. Birds of the same feather flock together.
jamama, can u define a thief…
jamama, can u define a thief!!! where do u classify Ur self?