NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 10-Religious leaders have urged Kenyans to set time aside and pray for the country, following the COVID-19 pandemic and high political temperatures.
Presiding Bishop of Christ is the Answers Ministries David Oginde, who spoke at the the National Prayer day at Statehouse, Nairobi, said that the country can only overcome the pandemic if “we all commit to seeking God’s intervention”.
“I want to encourage all Kenyans, do not go below the decks and sleep. Arise and call on your God so that we may be saved,” Bishop Oginde said.
Catholic Bishop Philip Sulumeti said it is only God who can heal and transform the country.
“We all need to speak to God and let us ask ourselves who is committing this crime, who is committing corruption, tribalism, is it you and I, then God will hear our prayer,” Bishop Sulumeti added.
Anglican Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit, who delivered the key sermon, also urged Kenyans to use the three-day prayer weekend to seek God’s direction and favor as the nation wheels out of the COVID-19 pandemic which had slowed the economy since March.
“As we gather today some are asking what we are thanking God for and we can say yes Lord we are in this situation, but we are grateful that it will not remain like this,” Sapit said while delivering the sermon.
President Uhuru Kenyatta last convened a national prayer day at State House, Nairobi in March, in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak in the country where clergy from various denominations prayed for God’s intervention to overcome the pandemic.
The country has so far recorded 40,620 coronavirus cases, 30,876 recoveries and 775 fatalities as reported by the Ministry of Health on October 9, 2020.
At the same time, 1.7 million Kenyans were rendered jobless between April and June, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics owing to the pandemic.
The economy has started opening up, with children expected in school from Monday.