YVONNE'S TAKE: When pulpit becomes a podium

There is a place in our society once considered sacred, a place meant for solace, reflection, healing, moral guidance and spiritual renewal, a place called the pulpit.

But in recent times, something has changed. More often than not, that pulpit has quietly been recast as a campaign podium, a stage for political performance disguised in the language of faith.

Consider these troubling incidents. A politician walked into a house of worship and, before a congregation expecting prayer and comfort, spoke about how votes in the city had been “zoned,” as if the people in that pew were blocks on a map to be parcelled out, not men and women deserving dignity.

Another Sunday, a legislator used the pulpit to demand that Kenyans abroad, activists, critics, dissenters, be “repatriated” or “dealt with” if they “cause trouble.” These calls for punishment, cloaked in religious ceremony, were met not with correction, but with silence.

These are not isolated stray comments. They are part of a pattern: politicians using spiritual platforms,  spaces meant for faith and unity, to amplify division, tribal signalling, fear, anger and political mobilisation.

It forces a question many of us are already asking in hushed tones: do we still have a pulpit, or just a stage? Are our religious spaces still sanctuaries of conscience and compassion, or have they become battlegrounds for campaigns and tribal contests?

When the pulpit becomes a podium, it legitimises politics with the veneer of holiness, normalises tribal arithmetic inside places meant to transcend identity, trains congregations to see neighbours not as fellow humans but as voters, blocs or threats, and degrades spiritual authority into political spectacle.

That costs us more than a sermon. It costs us our moral compass. It damages the social trust we need to live together in a diverse nation. It blurs the line between governance and gospel, and that is dangerous.

And so I say this to those who hold the microphone not for redemption but for rallies, and to those who preach not for healing but for votes: enough.

If you want to campaign, have a podium. If you want to shepherd souls, keep the pulpit. But do not pretend that a pew makes your politics holy.

To the clergy, the spiritual custodians, I ask you now: do you want a church or a political theatre? Because a church demands silence for the conscience. A theatre demands applause for the ego. Choose carefully.